The dismissal from the service of six Negros Oriental police officers involved in the unlawful arrest of Moises Padilla mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo, who was then a vice-mayor when the incident occurred in 2017, is a proof that the government does not tolerate political partisanship in the Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said on Sunday, June 27.
“The dismissal of these cops is a warning to the entire PNP to be non-partisan especially during the election season,” Año said.
Those dismissed were former Moises Padilla town police chief Police Capt. Allan Reloj, Police Master Sgt. Ricardo Campos Dingcong Jr., Police Corporal Nobel Perante, Police Corporal Felix Corejado Pesales Jr., Patrolman Michael Mondido and Patrolman Darryl Ducay Dormido.
In 2017, Garcia-Yulo and her husband Felix Mathias Feria Yulo were illegally accosted and harassed by the six police officers headed by Reloj. While driving along Barangay Crossing Magallon in Moises Padilla, the Yulos stopped supposedly a vehicular search by the said cops which the National Police Commission, in its investigation, found to be election-related.
Garcia-Yulo was a political rival of then Moises Padilla mayor Magdaleno Peña in the 2019 elections.
The six dismissed cops were accused of conducting an illegal checkpoint, performing unlawful arrest upon the Yulo couple, and performing an illegal search and seizure of the vehicle of the couple in violation of the 2013 PNP Police Operational Procedures and NAPOLCOM Memorandum Circular No. 2016-002.
Año said the six cops were charged and later found guilty by the National Police Commission that to their dismissal.
Aside from the dismissal from the service of the six policemen, the NAPOLCOM order states the forfeiture of their eligibility, retirement benefits and ban from holding any public office.