‘Raid witnessed by newsmen, officials’

By NITZ ARANCON and LITO RULONA

Correspondents

CAMP Alagar yesterday claimed police officers who shot and killed Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., his wife and about a dozen others Ozamiz City on Sunday have witnesses to support their assertion that the shooting deaths were not a result of a rubout.

Supt. Lemuel Gonda, Camp Alagar spokesman, said the witnesses include media practitioners and barangay officials.

“Wala may rubout nga nahitabo kay during sa raid, na-a may mga witnesses nga sakop sa media ug mga barangay officials,” Gonda said without identifying any of the alleged witnesses.

Parojinog, his wife Susan, his uncle Misamis Oriental provincial board member Octavio Parojinog and about a dozen others were killed in simultaneous raids at around 2:30 am Sunday.

Police said among those killed was a Lydia  and a JR, staff of “Lumad TV,” a local media outfit said to be financed by the Parojinogs.

Gonda said four members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team who were guarding the house of Nova Princess resisted the police raiders, and were also killed.

Gonda maintained that the shooting deaths were a result of “legitimate” police operations, denying that the people who died were victims of liquidation.

He said it was Parojinog’s bodyguards in the mayor’s house in San Roque Lawis,  who fired first at the raiding team, prompting the officers to shoot back.

The Sunday raids were carried out by the Ozamiz and Misamis Occidental police and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. The police operations were supervised by Ozamiz police director Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, and based on six search warrants issued by a Quezon City court against Parojinog, his daughter Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog-Echaves, Reynaldo Jr. and provincial board member Ricardo Parojinog.

Police said the raids were a result of information provided by civilians that the Parojinogs were illegally keeping firearms and shabu.

Gonda said a search at the house of the mayor’s brother, Councilor Ricardo “Ardot” Parojinog, resullted in the seizure of several firearms and suspected shabu.

Ricardo, who was not in his house when the police came, is now subject of a manhunt.

Tension has gripped Ozamiz as a result of the killings.

Over local radio, Espenido vehemently denied that police violated human rights when they carried out the raid. He also said the shooting deaths were not extrajudicial killings, asserting that the officers were guided by the rules of engagement.

“The exchange of firepower took place after they lobbed a grenade,” Espenido said.

Espenido apologized to relatives and loved ones of the Parojinogs for the outcome of the police operation but said law enforcers were left with no choice but to use force.

He called Mayor Parojinog as a “high-value target” in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.

“Mayor Parojinog was a drug lord,” Espenido said.

The late mayor was publicly accused by President as a “narco-politician.”

Gonda said the raided houses yielded assorted firearms and ammunition, explosives, suspected shabu and drug paraphernalia. All were taken for safekeeping by the CIDG.

But Parojinog’s daughter Nova Princess accused the police of planting evidence against her family, television reports indicate.

Nova Princess and her brother Reynaldo Jr. were brought to Camp Crame following their arrest.

Chief Supt. Timoteo Pacleb, police director for northern Mindanao, commended the raiding team for what he called as a “successful operation” against the Parojinogs.

Pacleb said his men were shot at by Parojinog’s group and so, they retaliated.

He also said the police had to stage the raid at dawn so that there would be an element of surprise.

Pacleb said it took the police two hours before they could breach the house of the mayor. (with reports from nora sorino, sita asequia, and mindanews)