Parojinog daughter to Rody: Order thorough probe

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Ozamiz City Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog-Echavez yesterday urged President Duterte to investigate the raids on her family’s residences that resulted in the killing of her parents and 13 others on Sunday.

Killed in the police operation were Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, his wife Susan, sister Mona and brother Octavio Jr. 

“I am asking President Duterte to investigate this. He should look at it thoroughly. He knows my father,” Nova Princess said.

She said the illegal drugs, firearms and other items allegedly found at their residences were planted.

The vice mayor said it was the law enforcers who first shot the security personnel of her father.

Police said the raiding team retaliated after shots were fired from the mayor’s house in Barangay Baybay, San Roque Lawis.

Nova Princess denied her father’s security men fired first.

The police officers were supposed to serve search warrants on the Parojinogs when the firefight erupted.

“The PNP personnel were met with a volley of gunfire from the Parojinogs’ security personnel, prompting the police to retaliate,” Northern Mindanao police director Chief Supt. Timoteo Pacleb said in a statement.

The vice mayor said the raiding team removed the hard drives of the closed-circuit television cameras installed in her and her father’s homes.

“If there was no irregularity, why did they need to remove the hard disks of our CCTV?” she said.

Ozamiz City police director Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido said the mayor was one of the major targets of the government’s war against illegal drugs.

The slain mayor was among narco-politicians named by President Duterte last year. He had denied the accusation and said that Duterte cleared him when they met at Malacañang during a meeting with mayors last January.

“When he saw me, he approached me and said ‘Wala man kay labot’ (you’re not a part of it),” Reynaldo Sr. told journalists at the time, referring to Duterte and the drug “matrix” that supposedly included politicians and ranking government officials.

He also said he asked Duterte to have his and his daughter’s names removed from the matrix.

Espenido said there are still major drug targets in Ozamiz and he urged them to come clean.

“I hope they will voluntarily stop their illegal activities dahil wala tayong sinasanto (we have no sacred cows),” Espenido said in an interview recently.

Meanwhile, the Parojinogs’ counsel Lawrence Carim complained that he was prevented from entering the Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame to accompany the vice mayor and her bother Reynaldo Jr.

The siblings were flown to Manila from Ozamiz early yesterday morning.

Carim said he was with his clients from Ozamiz to Manila but was denied entry at Camp Crame.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group director Roel Obusan said Nova Princess and her brother were brought to Metro Manila because the search warrants against them were issued by a Quezon City judge.

Carim said the siblings fear for their lives once they are transported without their lawyer.

He said the Parojinogs should remain in Ozamiz because that’s where the alleged crime was committed.

“The venue for the hearing of the case is jurisdictional,” he said.