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[av_heading heading=’‘BRING OUT THE TRUTH’ Nocppo probes arrest of Moises Padilla vice mayor, hubby ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY RANIE AZUE and CYRUS GARDE
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BACOLOD City – Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Castil Jr., director of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo), assigned a fact-finding team to look into the allegations rooting from the arrest of Moises Padilla vice mayor Ella Celestina Yulo and husband Felix Mathias Yulo III.
“The fact-finding committee will consider all angles of the investigation,” Castil said in a statement yesterday.
He also encouraged witnesses to help Nocppo “bring out the truth.”
The Yulos – who were on board a Mitsubishi Strada on their way to Bacolod City – were arrested at a checkpoint in the boundary of Moises Padilla and La Castellana towns in Negros Occidental on Tuesday.
Guns, grenades and sachets of shabu were recovered from them, police said.
According to Police Regional Office 6 spokesman Superintendent Gilbert Gorero, Senior Inspector Alan Reloj of the Moises Padilla police station and his men – who were manning the checkpoint – searched the vehicle around 6:20 p.m. that day.
Reloj said they saw “in plain view” a .45-caliber pistol beside the driver’s seat, which prompted them to search the entire vehicle, resulting to the discovery of another .45-caliber gun, two hand grenades and sachets of shabu.
The police also found P45,000 cash from the vehicle.
The Yulos were then brought to the town’s police station. They were facing charges for violation of Republic Act (RA) 10591 (Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act), RA 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) and RA 9516 for illegal possession of explosives, Gorero said.
Ella Celestina claimed in radio interviews that the allegations hurled against them were false. The guns and grenades recovered from them were licensed and the drugs were planted, she added.
According to the vice mayor, the arresting officers “manhandled” them, resulting to injuries on the different parts of their bodies.
Reloj denied this, though. He stressed that his men had followed the standard operational procedures upon arresting the couple.
The Yulos were currently detained at the Moises Padilla police station lockup facility.
Yesterday, they were brought to the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory in Camp Alfredo Montelibano Jr. in Barangay Estefania. (With Mae Singuay/PN)
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