ecpg "aborts" on structure reference

Think I've identified a bug in ecpg 2.8 (RH7.1) the following
code aborts (crashes) ecpg:

exec sql include     sqlca;
exec sql include     ../../libhome/dbincs/apc_layout.h;
exec sql include     ../../libhome/dbincs/apc_layo_fld.h;

   static int
get_org_name()
{
   exec sql begin declare section;
   APC_LAYOUT     PL;
   APC_LAYO_FLD   PLF;
   char           curr_sect[2];
   exec sql end declare section;

   if (1) {
      exec sql declare fld_curs cursor for
         select apc_layo_fld.*
            from apc_layo_fld
            where apcl_id = :PL.apcl_id
              and apclf_sect_flg = :curr_sect
         order by apclf_ln_nbr, apclf_col_nbr;
   }


   exec sql open fld_curs;
}

... key line here is "where apcl_id = :PL.apcl_id" if I replace
it with "where apcl_id = 1" ... ecpg no longer crashes.

If this has been fixed in 2.9, I would be happy to beta it since
I am porting more that million lines of code from Informix ESQL to
Postgres.  I am not sure how to get the latest version since
I am new to the open source game.

Thanks.
Tim Nelson