Fast and furious

APALISOK

A few hours after it was established that last Sunday’s predawn raid in the properties owned by the family of slain Ozamiz City mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Jr. was led by local police Chief Superintendent Jovie Espenido together with elements of the regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), mainstream media tracked his professional record even as social media was flooded with praises for the controversial police official.

He is the same Jovie Espenido who, as local chief of police of Albuera town in Leyte last year, arrested Mayor Rolando Espinosa who is linked to the drug dealing activities of his son, Kerwin Espinosa. As we know, the mayor perished inside the provincial jail in Baybay City after elements of the CIDG swooped down in his cell and killed him while supposedly trying to fight off policemen whom Kerwin earlier identified as under his payroll.

The details of the police operation can be outrageous and incredible at the same time, but misgivings for shortcut justice no longer elicit the same reaction it did in the past. As we know, Supt. Marvin Marcos, who led the CIDG team in the operation against mayor Espinosa, was suspended from service but was later reinstated by PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on orders of President Rodrigo Duterte. With a precedent like that, the police vibe for drug lords and drug dealers seems to be fast and furious killing.

According to well-placed sources, Mayor Parojinog had lost his police security detail after President Duterte put him on the list of narco-politicians involved in the illegal drug trade. To fill this critical security gap Mayor Parojinog mobilized the so-called Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT) to guard him. In addition, he also tapped reporters of Lumad TV, the cable channel leased by the Ozamiz LGU (tasked to document official events and produce political propaganda), to reinforce his security detail. They all perished in the Sunday bloodshed.

Apparently, the Parojinogs were not chummy with Jovie Espenido, who is said to have made statements meant to threaten the local political leadership after he assumed as Ozamiz chief of police in December 8, 2016.

According to a ranking Ozamiz City official, the Parojinogs had a feeling the police were out to kill them. I heard Vice Mayor Nova Parojinog was feeling paranoid to the point that before last Sunday’s bloodshed, she had the cell phones of city hall employees confiscated to find out who were sending messages to the police about her family’s activities.

There’s no political opposition party in Ozamiz except in Facebook where people are free to express their feelings without fear of retribution. In fact, no local government official in Misamis Occidental would dare talk about the subject of Kuratong Baleleng criminal syndicate and the involvement of the Parojinogs in the underworld.

As fate would have it, the Parojinogs did not see the raid actually coming, at 2:30 a.m. on a Sunday as the city was blanketed by total darkness due to a blackout.

In a media interview, Espenido told details of the police operation wherein he acknowledged the raiding team “disabled” the CCTV for the security of informers who went with the raiding team. Although he did not categorically admit the power blackout was part of the action plan, it practically immobilized Mayor Parojinog and his men and whatever security measures they laid out to thwart the police from entering his property. During the raid, the police discovered high-powered firearms, explosive devices, huge sums of money and illegal drugs. The houses were heavily guarded and secured and equipped with closed-circuit TV.

The Parojinogs have acquired the reputation of being untouchable, a Mindanao mafia that can easily wiggle its way out of legal troubles either by santong dasalan or santong paspasan (through bribery or murder).

Obviously, whatever physical fortresses or political strongholds they have built for many years fell apart last Sunday. The raid is obviously shortcut justice, and although it has no place in a democratic society like ours, nobody can say the Parojinogs did not take advantage of the weaknesses of our justice system.