The mayor of Moises Padilla town in Negros Occidental and her husband received an early Christmas gift on Friday, Nov. 24, after an almost six year wait.
Branch 46 Judge Edgar Tupas of the Regional Trial Court of Bacolod dismissed the illegal possession of firearms and explosives cases lodged against Moises Padilla Mayor Ella Celestina Garcia Yulo and her husband Felix Matias Segundo Feria Yulo III for insufficiency of evidence.
The mayor said they were very happy with the decision, “it feels like a thorn has been removed from our hearts”.
She said even if they did not have the connections and the money to fight the person who masterminded the trumped up charges against them justice prevailed with God’s help.
The ordeal taught them patience and that things happen in God’s time, she said.
The dismissal of the charges against them shows that the truth will prevail and justice is not only for the rich with God’s help, the mayor added.
Yulo thanked La Castellana Mayor Rhummyla Mangilimutan for coming to their rescue when they were looking for a safe place to be detained. She and her husband were detained at the La Castellana town jail for a time, the mayor said.
The mayor and her husband thanked all those who helped them, and prayed that they would be granted justice.
Yulo, who was then vice mayor, and her husband were arrested at a police checkpoint at Barangay Crossing Magallon in Moises Padilla, on Dec. 19, 2017 for alleged possession of two .45 caliber pistols with live bullets and two fragmentation grenades from inside their Mitsubishi Strada vehicle.
On April 3, 2019, they were granted bail on the grounds that the prosecution’s evidence of their guilt was not strong.
The judge, in acquitting the mayor and her husband, said “this Court finds that there is insufficient prosecution evidence to hold both accused for further trial for both offenses charged. Hence, both these cases should be dismissed and both accused acquitted of the offenses charged”.
“In these cases, the existence of the firearms, ammunition and explosives; the corpus delicti of both crimes charged, were not established because they are inadmissible in evidence. The seizures of the contraband cannot be justified under the plain view doctrine,” he said.
Senior Inspector Allan Reloj, who was the Moises Padilla police chief when the Yulos were arrested, did not inspire confidence in the truthfulness of his testimony while on the witness stand, the judge said.
He exhibited great stress on the witness stand as he struggled to remain consistent in his testimony, the judge noted.
“He was not spontaneous when answering questions, especially from defense counsel. At one point, he grabbed his head with both of his hands, looked at the Courtroom’s ceiling and brushed both his hands against his hair to try to clear-up what he was thinking, while grimacing in exhaustion on the witness stand. He was an evasive and unresponsive witness. He gave too many insisted assertions of the version of events propounded by the prosecution in these cases. He is not a credible witness of the people’s cause in these cases,” the judge added.
No other member of the checkpoint team who had personal knowledge of how both accused were arrested and the reasons for their arrest, were presented as a prosecution witness, he said.*