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BY RANIE AZUE
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BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. wants an impartial investigation into the arrest of Vice Mayor Ella Celestina Yulo of Moises Padilla town and husband Felix Mathias.
Police caught the Bacolod City-bound couple, who were on board a Mitsubishi Strada, at a checkpoint at the Moises Padilla-La Castellana boundary on Tuesday.
Guns, sachets of shabu and cash were seized from them, officers said.
Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Castil Jr., provincial police director, created a fact-finding team to investigate.
Marañon welcomed the creation of a special investigating team.
But the investigators must be free of any influence from the Yulos and the officers who arrested them, the governor stressed during his 82nd birthday celebration yesterday in Sagay City.
Senior Inspector Alan Reloj, Moises Padilla police chief, and other officers at the checkpoint checked the Yulos’ vehicle at around 6:20 p.m.
Reloj said they saw “in plain view” a .45 pistol next to the driver’s seat, prompting them to search the entire vehicle. They found another .45 pistol, two hand grenades, sachets of shabu, and P45,000 cash.
Facing a string of charges, the Yulos were detained at the Moises Padilla police station custodial facility.
Vice Mayor Yulo, in radio interviews, claimed they had license to possess the guns and the drugs were “planted.”
She also said the officers “manhandled” them, but Reloj denied this, insisting that they followed standard operating procedures.
Meanwhile, Marañon dismissed as “hearsay” the allegations that Vice Mayor Yulo was connected with the New People’s Army (NPA) and that the couple were drug personalities.
“We need concrete proof that she is supporting the NPA,” stressed the governor. “It is easy to make allegations but we need evidence to substantiate them.”/PN
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