Couple expressed concern for their safety with NOPPO

By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Three weeks after the La Carlota City Regional Trial Court issued an arrest warrant against

Moises Padilla Vice Mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo and her husband, Felix Mathias Segundo Yulo III, the couple surrendered yesterday morning to Police Regional Office-6 (PRO-6) director, Police Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, at the Bacolod City Police Office headquarters.

“We appreciate this humble act as this will dispense the police of the necessary resources needed to serve the warrants of arrest as the police [are] mandated to enforce the law and implement orders of the court,” Bulalacao said during a press conference.

The PRO-6 chief called the surrender a “manifestation of respect for the rule of law and the justice system” and said he will leave the decision to the La Carlota City Regional Trial Court on where the couple should be detained.

Garcia-Yulo, meanwhile, explained they chose to surrender to law enforcement in Bacolod City, claiming concerns over safety if they turned themselves in to the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office.

Following the press conference, the couple was escorted by heavily-armed police officers to La Carlota City in order fulfill the arrest warrant.

Last month, the La Carlota City Regional Trial Court-Branch 63 issued a warrant of arrest against the vice mayor and her husband following their arrest last year at a police checkpoint.

The charges stemmed from two fragmentation grenades recovered from Garcia-Yulo’s vehicle after Moises Padilla municipal police chief, then under Police Chief Inspector Alan Reloj, conducted a search at the said checkpoint./DGB, WDJ