By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Moises Padilla Vice Mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo and her husband Felix Mathias Segundo Yulo were freed last Friday from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology District Jail in Bago City.

The pair were released by Judge Edgar Tupas of the Negros Occidental Regional Trial Court-Branch 46 and they were each permitted to post bail of P10,000 each.

In a statement by the vice mayor, she told her constituents “the handcuffs and steel bars of the jail” will not hinder her from being victorious.

Garcia-Yulo is currently running for mayor against incumbent Moises Padilla Mayor Magdaleno Peña.

According to the order signed by Tupas, the evidence presented against the accused was “not strong.”

The vice mayor and her husband were arrested in December 2017 at a police checkpoint for illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

Police also recovered shabu from the vice mayor’s vehicle, however, tests performed at the provincial crime laboratory later showed the recovered substance was “fake.”

An arrest warrant against the two was later issued in August 2018.

They surrendered to the Bacolod City Police Office in September of that year after seeking assistance from Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Martin Diño./DGB, WDJ