Ozamiz mayor positive for gunpowder

MANILA, Philippines - Slain Ozamiz City mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. tested positive for gunpowder nitrates in the paraffin test conducted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory, an official said yesterday.

PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos said seven other people from Parojinog’s camp also tested positive for gunpowder nitrates, but their names were not mentioned in the summary provided by the PNP Crime Lab Region 10.

The autopsy reports were submitted to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, which is investigating the police drug raid in Ozamiz City over the weekend, where 15 persons including the mayor’s wife Susan and his brother Octavio, a provincial board member, were killed.

While the findings are not conclusive, Carlos said it would help in the investigation.

“It will show us (that) the firearms that were recovered in the premises were used and there was a gun battle… an exchange of gunfire,” Carlos said in a press briefing.

Parojinog’s wife Susan and sister Mona were not subjected to paraffin tests as no firearms were found near their corpses.

A certain Cesar, who allegedly survived the raid, said in a television interview a defenseless Parojinog was shot by policemen.

Reynaldo Sr., Susan, Octavio and the witness were rounded up in the mayor’s residence.

The witness claimed a grenade was thrown in their direction, injuring them. While he played dead, Cesar said the mayor was about to be shot but Octavio stepped in. As a result both of them were fatally shot.

Carlos, however, said that Parojinog was not shot at close range as there were no traces of smudging on his body. It was the same feedback he got in the other autopsy results.

“It was delivered at a distance,” Carlos said.

Senate probe uncertain

As this developed, the possibility of the Senate conducting an inquiry into the PNP’s operation against the Parojinog clan is still up in the air as far as Senators Panfilo Lacson and Richard Gordon are concerned.

Last Wednesday, Sen. Leila de Lima filed a resolution calling for a probe into the incident and this has been referred to the committees on public order and dangerous drugs chaired by Lacson, and justice and human rights headed by Gordon.

Lacson said he has not yet read the resolution of De Lima, but said he would call for a hearing if there are witnesses who are willing to come forward and testify “on the probability of summary executions or excesses in the police operations conducted.”

“Otherwise, I don’t want to sacrifice the time of the Senate for our budget hearings that will start early next week, not to mention the pending bills that I have to tackle in my committees,” he said.

Lacson initially said the police raid on the Parojinogs appeared to be legitimate even though it resulted in the death of 15 individuals.

Gordon, for his part, said he would wait for the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service (IAS) to conclude its own investigation into the incident before deciding on whether or not to call for a hearing.

If he is not satisfied with the findings of the IAS, Gordon said he is “ready to investigate or be part of the investigation” that would be held at the Senate.

As a general rule, Gordon said it is better that the government is transparent in its investigations so that the public would know the truth.

Probe ‘bangkay sa bangka’

Meanwhile, De Lima has also called for an investigation into the so-called “bangkay sa bangka” modus of some policemen, which involves the dumping of bodies of suspected drug personalities into the waters of Manila Bay.

Senate Resolution 451, which she filed, urges the committee on public order and dangerous drugs to investigate Al Jazeera’s reports that bodies of victims slain in the government’s all-out war on drugs were being dumped in Manila Bay.

“These reports point to an alarming and reprehensible defect in our criminal justice system where an apparent cycle of impunity is embedded and reinforced,” De Lima said.

“Unscrupulous law enforcement agents, who are emboldened into summarily executing drug suspects rather than arresting and prosecuting them, are themselves the investigators of the crimes they have committed and are thus in a unique position to hide their crimes by resorting to various methods of disposing of evidence,” she added.

The July 28 report of the television news station Al Jazeera claimed that local fishermen were being paid by the police to throw bodies of drug suspects into Manila Bay.

She pointed out that this was very similar to what self-confessed Davao death squad member Edgar Matobato said they were doing upon the orders of President Duterte when he was still mayor of Davao City.

De Lima said the experiences recounted by the fishermen are a fulfillment of Duterte’s electoral campaign promise when he said he will fatten the fish in Manila Bay by dumping 100,000 bodies of drug users and pushers.