BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The National Police Commission (Napolcom) ordered the dismissal of the former police chief of Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental, Captain Allan Reloj, and five other policemen for grave misconduct and grave irregularities.
An administrative complaint was filed against them in relation to the Dec. 19, 2017 arrest of then Moises Padilla vice mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo and husband Felix Mathias Feria Yulo.
The five other policemen were Police Master Sergeant Ricardo Campos Dingcong Jr., Police Corporals Nobel Perante and Felix Corejado Pesales Jr., and Patrolmen Michael Mondido and Darryl Ducay Dormido
Napolcom found them “culpable”, according to Interior secretary and Napolcom chairman Eduardo Año in an order dated Oct. 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 Dec. 19, 2017 around 6 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, the 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./PN