Six dismissed cops given 15 days to appeal ruling

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – The five personnel of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo) here who were dismissed from the police service in relation to their checkpoint irregularities against a government official and her husband in Moises Padilla town four years ago, have 15 days to appeal the ruling of the National Police Commission (Napolcom).

Police Captain Allan Reloj, town police chief at that time; Police Master Sergeant Ricardo Dingcong Jr., Police Corporal Nobel Perante, Police Corporal Felix Pesales Jr., Patrolman Michael Mondido, and Patrolman Darryl Dormido were found “culpable for grave misconduct and grave irregularities in the performance of duty,” when they arrested during a checkpoint then Moises Padilla Vice Mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo and her husband, Felix Yulo III, for alleged illegal possession of firearms, drugs, and explosives in the town in December 2017.

Reloj is already retired from service, thus only the five remaining officers can appeal the dismissal.

But even if he has retired, Reloj is still covered by the accessory penalties like forfeiture of benefits.

Police Lieutenant Abegael Donasco, Nocppo’s public information officer, said the five respondents can file a Motion for Reconsideration the moment they receive a copy of the order.

However, Donasco said they have yet to receive an official written copy of the order from the Napolcom through the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters for the implementation of the dismissal order.

Donasco said that four of the five policemen are still rendering their duties, while they have no idea about the status of Dingcong whether he retired or was transferred to another police unit.

Donasco also said that the Napolcom order is not anymore valid to Reloj because he already retired from the police service.

The case of these six policemen stemmed from a checkpoint operation conducted at Barangay Crossing Magallon on on December 19, 2017, where the Yulo couple on board a pickup truck was flagged down.

In August 2018, La Carlota City Regional Trial Court Branch 63 Judge Cyclamen Jison-Fernandez issued arrest warrants against the couple after they were charged with illegal possession of explosives, and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

A month later, the couple surrendered to the top cop of Police Regional Office (PRO)-6 at that time, and was jailed for seven months, even if then Vice Mayor Yulo insisted that the recovered two hand grenades, two .45 caliber pistols and ammunition, and two plastic sachets containing suspected shabu were planted, and that they were harassed by the police at the checkpoint.

The Yulo couple’s claims were refuted by the town police led by Reloj at that time, saying that they flagged down the couple’s vehicle due to “suspicious actuation.”

The Napolcom, however, stressed in the ruling that the prosecution was able to establish that the area where the checkpoint was conducted was not well-lighted which is a violation of the 2013 Philippine National Police Operational Procedure.

Also, the checkpoint was manned by respondents, some of whom in civilian clothes, members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team, and unidentified armed men, the order said.

“It is worthy to note that there were marked inconsistencies given by respondents” in their joint affidavit and other documentary evidence they presented,” the order said.

It also stressed that the “testimonies of complainants and their witnesses were clear and straightforward, narrating in detail the act done by respondents, thus accorded greater weight as opposed to the defense of alibi and denial of respondents.”

“Respondents’ acts are clear exhibition of transgression of some established and definite rule of action which involves a willful intent to violate the law or to disregard established rules and were highly improper, therefore, construed as grave misconduct and grave irregularities in the performance of duty,” the ruling stressed.

With the said development, Yulo, who is now the town mayor, said she is grateful that they finally attained justice after so many years.