Stay away from politics, DILG chief tells cops

Eduardo Año INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año warned policemen on Sunday to stay away from politics after six of them, including a Negros Oriental town police chief, were sacked over their 2017 harassment of a mayoralty contender and her husband.

Año cited the political harassment of then Moises Padilla town Vice Mayor Ella Garcia Yulo and her husband Felix whose car was illegally searched at an unauthorized checkpoint in 2017 by the six policemen.

In a statement on Sunday, Año pointed out that the removal from the police service of former Moises Padilla town Police Chief Capt. Allan Reloj, Master Sergeant Ricardo Campos Dingcong Jr., Cpl. Nobel Perante, Cpl. Felix Corejado Pesales Jr., Pat. Michael Mondido, and Pat. Darryl Ducay Dormido, meant that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Police Commission (Napolcom) will not tolerate political partisanship in the Philippine National Police.

“This kind of policemen have no place in the PNP. They spoil the good work of the majority of the police force and diminish public confidence in our police force. The dismissal of these cops is a warning to the entire PNP to be nonpartisan, especially during the election season,” the interior secretary said.

According to Año, the Napolcom found that the six policemen committed grave misconduct and grave irregularities in the performance of their duty meriting their dismissal. The commission, which the DILG secretary chairs, described their act as “political harassment” as Yulo was a political rival of then Moises Padilla Mayor Magdaleno Peña in the 2019 local polls.

He noted that in 2017, Yulo and her husband were on a vehicle in Barangay Crossing Magallon at Moises Padilla town when they were illegally accosted and harassed by the policemen who conducted an unauthorized search and seizure of the couple’s vehicle.

Año pointed out, “The search performed by the respondents on the complainants was unlawful because aside from violations of the PNP Police Operational Procedures, they also failed to prove the area where the checkpoint was placed was within their immediate control.”

Apart from dismissal from the service, the Napolcom also ordered the forfeiture of their eligibility and retirement benefits and their ban from holding any public office.

With the local and national elections drawing near, Año said that PNP personnel should learn from the Yulo case and should always remember that they are nonpartisan public servants.

He gave assurance that the DILG and the Napolcom would not allow the PNP to be exploited in dirty political tactics. INQ