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