imported>LionmerterTHE: /* Parricide case and raid */ clean up, typo(s) fixed: in April 13, 2012 → on April 13, 2012, one-year old daughter → one-year-old daughter

2026-03-26T07:43:34Z

Parricide case and raid: clean up, typo(s) fixed: in April 13, 2012 → on April 13, 2012, one-year old daughter → one-year-old daughter

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{{Short description|Fraternal organization}}
{{Use Philippine English|date=January 2023}}
{{use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association
| full_name = Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, Inc.
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| logo = Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association seal.png
| logo_size = 175px
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| image = Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association Shrine, San Jose, Dinagat Islands, Philippines.jpg
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| caption = PBMA Divine Master's Shrine, [[Aurelio, Dinagat Islands|Aurelio]], [[San Jose, Dinagat Islands]].
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| formation = {{start date and age|1965}}
| founder = [[Ruben Ecleo Sr.]]
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| location_city = [[San Jose, Dinagat Islands]]
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| membership = 140,000
| membership_year = 2013
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The '''Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, Inc.''' ('''PBMA''') is a non-sectarian and non-profit charitable religious [[fraternity|fraternal organization]] for men and women in the Philippines founded by [[Ruben Ecleo Sr.|Ruben Edera Ecleo Sr.]] (December 9, 1934 – December 20, 1987) in 1965 on the [[Philippines|Philippine]] island of [[Dinagat Island|Dinagat]], off the coast of [[Mindanao]]. Upon the senior Ecleo's death in 1987, he was succeeded by his son [[Ruben Ecleo Jr.|Ruben B. Ecleo Jr.]], who died in prison on May 13, 2021, after being convicted of killing his wife in 2002.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Musico |first1=Jelly |title=Cult leader Ecleo dies |url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1140195 |access-date=17 September 2022 |work=Philippine News Agency |date=13 May 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

As of 2013, the group claimed to have 140,000 members.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tupaz |first1=Voltaire |title=Dinagat: The hands that heal hold power |url=https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/28187-dinagat-hands-that-heal-hold-power/ |access-date=17 September 2022 |work=Rappler |date=5 May 2013}}</ref> It was registered with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission (Philippines)|Securities and Exchange Commission]] (SEC), in [[Makati]], Philippines, on October 19, 1965, under Registration No. 28042. Its main office is located in [[San Jose, Dinagat Islands|San Jose]], province of [[Dinagat Islands]].

''[[The Manila Times]]'' estimates the group has raised at least [[Philippine peso|PHP]] 35 million in entrance fees from its members since its founding<ref name="shoot-out">{{cite news |title=Philippines shoot-out leaves 17 dead |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2052994.stm |access-date=17 September 2022 |work=BBC News |date=19 June 2002}}</ref><ref name="founder">"[http://www.rickross.com/reference/pbma/pbma1.html PBMA founder a 'Christ-like' figure]" Manila Times Gomez, Herbie June 9, 2002 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013070243/http://rickross.com/reference/pbma/pbma1.html |date=October 13, 2007 }}</ref> and has been labeled a religious cult.<ref name="bbc" /><ref name="philstar-2002" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Serrano |first1=Ben |title=Ecleo faces more charges |url=https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2002/06/21/165435/ecleo-faces-more-charges |access-date=7 December 2025 |work=[[The Philippine Star]] |date=21 June 2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Mayol |first1=Ador Vincent |title=Fugitive cult leader sets terms for surrender |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/897915/fugitive-cult-leader-sets-terms-for-surrender |access-date=7 December 2025 |work=[[Philippine Daily Inquirer]] |date=20 May 2017}}</ref>

==Beliefs==
According to sect doctrine, Ecleo Sr. was trained by "voices" to fluently read and write [[Arabic]], [[Hebrew]], [[Sanskrit]], and [[Aramaic]], to interpret ancient mysteries. He also made predictions of the future based on [[Akashic records]]. PBMA followers also viewed Ecleo Sr. as a Christ-like figure, who could accomplish anything by reciting the [[Mantra]], and like the Christ of the [[Bible]], was also able to [[resurrect]] the dead. Ecleo's healing abilities were stated to have directly come from "our Divine Father by virtue of the sacred or divine prayers which are called in [[Occultism]] as Mantras."<ref name="founder"/>

Sect leaders also stated that Ecleo Sr. had since his childhood been simultaneously present in many disparate locations, possibly as many different people. An example was his doing [[missionary]] work in [[Agusan del Sur]], while also traveling in the province of [[Samar]]. All of his different persona possessed the ability to heal like the "Lord Jesus who first applied these powers in [[Judea]]".<ref name="founder" />

==Controversies==
===Parricide case and raid===
Group members, described by local media organizations as heavily armed and willing to die for their leader, made effort to thwart police efforts to arrest [[Ruben Ecleo Jr.]] A source for the ''Manila Times'' reported that armed PBMA members made an oath to protect the "supreme master" (Ecleo), who was evading police efforts to arrest him for the murder of his wife, Alona Bacolod-Ecleo, a fourth-year [[medical student]]. Bacolod-Ecleo was found strangled in a rubbish bag at the bottom of a cliff in Cebu in January 2002.<ref name="founder" />

Ecleo Jr. was arrested after a bloody raid by law enforcement in Dinagat on June 19, 2002. Gunfire had erupted, as a joint force of [[Philippine National Police|PNP]] officers and troopers from the [[Philippine Army]]'s 20th Infantry Battalion moved in to serve an [[arrest warrant]]. The raid had begun after negotiations had broken down and approximately 2,000 PBMA followers had surrounded Ecelo's mansion and barred all access. A firefight with Ecleo's elite team of bodyguards, known as the ''White Eagles'', then erupted and lasted through the night. Ecleo finally surrendered to police at 9:00 am the following day.

The gun battle during the night left 23 dead, including one police [[SWAT]] officer and 16 armed PBMA members. During the raid, four members of his dead wife's family, including Candy Ecleo, were gunned down by a member of the PBMA security force in a possible cover-up attempt; the assailant was killed by police moments later, while attempting to flee the scene.<ref name="philstar-2002">{{cite web |last1=Serrano |first1=Ben |last2=Echeminada |first2=Perseus |title=23 Surigao Cultists Killed as Law Enforcers Arrest Ruben Ecleo, Jr. |url=https://www.rickross.com/reference/pbma/pbma14.html |website=Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements |publisher=The Philippine Star |access-date=17 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030105115629/https://www.rickross.com/reference/pbma/pbma14.html |archive-date=5 January 2003 |date=20 January 2002}}</ref>

Ecleo Jr. faced the [[parricide]] case before the [[Cebu City]] Regional Trial Court, Branch 23. However, the case dragged on because six judges recused. On April 25, 2008, the sixth judge, Geraldine Faith Econg, per a 24-page resolution, recused herself amid accusations and her own admission that two women approached her to ask how much would she need in payment for dropping the case.<ref>{{cite news |title=Another Cebu court judge inhibits self from Ecleo case |url=http://www.gmanews.tv/story/91485/Another-Cebu-court-judge-inhibits-self-from-Ecleo-case |access-date=17 September 2022 |work=GMA News |language=en}}</ref>

Ecleo Jr. stopped attending hearings in 2011 after his bail was cancelled but continued to be [[Trial in absentia|tried in absentia]]. He was convicted on April 13, 2012, for parricide.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ecleo family and supporters rally behind Master Ruben Jr. |url=https://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2012/04/ecleo-family-and-supporters-rally-behind-master-ruben-jr/ |access-date=14 October 2023 |work=MindaNews |date=15 April 2012}}</ref>

Ecleo Jr. was arrested in [[San Fernando, Pampanga]], on July 30, 2020, after being a fugitive for almost a decade. Police later said that he had fled the Dinagat Islands and moved to [[Metro Manila]] in 2014<ref>{{cite news |title=Police arrest fugitive cult leader and murder convict Ruben Ecleo |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1314700/police-arrest-fugitive-cult-leader-and-murder-convict-ruben-ecleo |access-date=1 February 2025 |work=Philippine Daily Inquirer |date=31 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref> before ultimately hiding in a subdivision in [[Angeles City]] under a false name. He had also taken in another wife and had a one-year-old daughter with her.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cult leader, wife killer Ecleo lived under new name, had new family in Angeles City |url=https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/07/30/20/cult-leader-wife-killer-ecleo-lived-under-new-name-had-new-family-in-angeles-city |access-date=1 February 2025 |work=ABS-CBN |date=30 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref> He later died at the [[New Bilibid Prison|New Bilibid Prison Hospital]] in [[Muntinlupa]] due to multiple illnesses on May 13, 2021.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cult leader and murder convict Ruben Ecleo Jr. dies |url=https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/05/13/21/ruben-ecleo-jr-cult-leader-dies-bilibid |access-date=14 October 2023 |work=ABS-CBN News |date=13 May 2023}}</ref>

===''Pulahan'' incident===
There is often violence between the PBMA, other Christian groups, and the security forces in the islands. Such an incident occurred in 2000 when approximately one hundred members of the rival ''Pulahan'' sect launched an assault on a PBMA shrine on the island of Dinagat, in turn two hundred PBMA members counterattacked and hacked to death ten Pulahan followers as well as their leader Edecio Quinanola.<ref name="bbc">{{cite news |title=Filipino cultists hacked to death |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1072120.stm |access-date=17 September 2022 |work=BBC News |date=15 December 2000}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.freewebs.com/ranie070/allaboutpbma.htm All About PBMA]
*[http://members.fortunecity.com/bhong_ong/pbma/wpbma01.htm PBMA at Fortune City]
*{{Facebook|pbma.inc}}

[[Category:Religious organizations based in the Philippines]]
[[Category:Christian new religious movements]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1965]]
[[Category:1965 establishments in the Philippines]]
[[Category:History of Dinagat Islands]]
[[Category:Esoteric Christianity]]

Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association - Revision history

imported>LionmerterTHE: /* Parricide case and raid */ clean up, typo(s) fixed: in April 13, 2012 → on April 13, 2012, one-year old daughter → one-year-old daughter