Garcias widow daughter ask pres duterte’s help

MARIJO GARCIA (left) appeals to President Rodrigo Duterte to help them attain justice for the death of her husband Mark Garcia. Joining her are their son and daughter and Vice Mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo (standing). (Dolly Yasa)

BACOLOD City – The wife of slain Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) president Mark Garcia and her daughter asked the help of President Rodrigo Duterte to attain justice for her husband’s murder.

Garcia was killed when armed men ambushed the convoy of his sister, Vice Mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo who was then campaigning in Hda. Dresden, Brgy. Inolingan, Moises Padilla on April 25, 2019.

Also killed in the ambush was Garcia’s nephew re-electionist Councilor Michael Garcia.

Mark’s wife Marijo recalled that she was with her husband in the convoy when the ambush happened.

Marijo said Mark told to her to flee and she thought that he was following her.

She said it was the first time that she experienced gunshots come from everywhere.

When the gunfire stopped, she said she was shocked to see her bullet-riddled husband.

“I thought he was following me when he told me to run,” Marijo recalled.

She also accused Moises Padilla Mayor Magdaleno Peña as the brains behind the ambush.

Peña has denied the accusation.

Marijo said Mark is Peña’s nephew and Michael is his grandson.

“How can he do this to us, we are his relatives,” Marijo told reporters.

She said Mark even resigned as ABC president and councilor in the town because he wants to live peacefully.

He decided that “we will focus on our business.”

Marijo said her husband is only helping in the campaign of his sister Ella who is running for mayor against Peña.

“We are asking President Rodrigo Duterte to help us, we want justice for my husband and nephew” Marijo said.

She added that she feels crippled without her husband as she was used to doing things with him.

Her daughter also joined her call to the President.

“We are asking President Duterte to help us, I am still young, but I don’t have a father anymore,” she said.