By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) has given the six sacked policemen 15 days to explain the alleged unlawful arrest of then Moises Padilla Vice Mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo and her husband Felix Mathias Yulo back in December of 2017.
NOCPPO spokesperson, Police Lt. Abegael Donasco, said former Moises Padilla police chief, Police Captain Allan Reloj, Police Master Sgt. Ricardo Campos Dingcong Jr., Police Corporals Nobel Perante and Felix Corejado Pesales Jr., and Patrolmen Michael Mondido and Darryl Ducay Dormido were ordered to give their explanation in order to determine if they could file for a Motion for Reconsideration before the National Police Commission (Napolcom).
Donasco also said as of yesterday they are still waiting for the formal resolution coming from the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters which would then be forwarded to the police stations where the six are currently assigned.
Napolcom found the six cops “culpable,” according to Interior secretary and Napolcom chairman Eduardo Año in an order dated October 21, 2020.
Aside from dismissal from the police service, Napolcom also forfeited the respondents’ police eligibility and retirement benefits, and they were barred from holding public office.
On December 19, 2017 around 6:00 p.m. the Yulo couple was onboard a gray Mitsubishi Strada navigating Barangay Crossing Magallon. They were flagged down at a police checkpoint manned by Reloj and the said cops.
Based on the circumstances surrounding the incident, Napolcom believed it was “election-related” and that the same was a form of “political harassment” as then Vice Mayor Yulo was a political opponent of then Moises Padilla mayor Magdaleno Peña.
Reloj and the five other cops were accused of conducting an illegal checkpoint, performing unlawful arrest and illegal search and seizure in violation of the 2013 Philippine National Police (PNP) Police Operational Procedures and Napolcom Memorandum Circular No. 2016-002./DGB, WDJ