MANILA, Philippines – Were the Parojinog killings tantamount to “state-sanctioned massacre?”
This is what Sen. Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros wants to know and thus she is urging her colleagues at the Upper Chamber to join her in initiating a legislative inquiry into the July 30 predawn police raid in Ozamiz City that led to the death of Mayor Reynaldo “Aldong” Parajinog Sr., his wife Susan, his siblings Octavio and Mona, and 11 members of the mayor’s security personnel.
“I call on my fellow senators to uncover the truth behind this bloody incident. It is vital that there be a fair and independent investigation,” Hontiveros said in a statement issued Tuesday.
The senator said she made the call because “serious accusations are being leveled against the police who participated in the operation.”
“If these prove true, then what happened in Ozamiz was not a legitimate police operation but a state-sanctioned massacre. It would carry the elements and blueprint of the extrajudicial killing of Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.”
On Monday, a man only identified in news reports as “Cesar,” who survived the raid after playing dead, claimed that the police had intentionally killed the Parajinogs.
He claimed the raiding team allegedly gathered the Parajinogs including him and the family’s other companions in their house and asked them to lie on their stomach. He said minutes later, the policemen walked out of the Parajinog residence and then he saw that grenades were thrown at them.
Cesar said Mona and another person died when the explosive went off. Then the police went back to check if there were still survivors. He said he saw Parajinog’s wife gunned down by the police, before they shot Octavio and then Reynaldo.
Cesar said the mayor was supposed to be the next to be killed but Octavio stepped in thus he was the one shot by the policemen before they gunned down Reynaldo. He said he saw Octavio approached and hugged Reynaldo before the mayor’s brother was killed.
Cesar said the police didn’t shoot him anymore because they saw him bloodied and thought that he was already dead, not noticing amid a power outage that he just smeared the mayor’s blood on his face and body.
Hontiveros said that while it could be true that the Parajinogs were “part of the country’s despicable drug trade,” the government nevertheless “must not disregard and sidestep the rule of law, especially the rights enshrined in the rule of law concerning the prosecution of criminals.”
“The government is the protector of the law and of its people. It is not a syndicate or a mafia. The campaign of the government against society’s criminals must not itself become a crime,” the senator said.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Order, which investigated the Nov. 5, 2016 slay of Espinosa inside his detention cell, said Hontiveros must first file a resolution calling for an investigation into the Parojinog killings before his panel determines if there is need for a legislative inquiry.
Lacson: No irregularity
But Lacson was apparently hesitant to call for a probe.
“Ang tanong, ang ba ang meron para tumawag ng hearing? Mahirap kasi na kada police operation ay tatawag tayo ng hearing. Imagine ang itsura ng Senado doon,” he said.
[The question is what is there to call for a probe? It would be difficult if we will call for a hearing every time there’s a police operation. Imagine what the Senate would look like if we do that.]
Earlier on Monday, Lacson said he didn’t see irregularities in the 2:30 a.m. police raid on the Parojinog residences during a power outage.
“The search warrant indicates it can be served any time of the day and night. So there’s nothing irregular there,” he said.
“When I was still in the law enforcement service, talagang we’d rather operate pag madaling araw para element of surprise ‘yon eh…Remember pulitiko ’yan. ‘Pag araw maraming tao baka maraming taong madisgrasya pag nagkaroon ng exchange of gunfire,” Lacson said.
[When I was still in the law enforcement service, we’d really rather operate at dawn as it was an element of surprise…Remember that he was a politician. If there were lots of people, many would be hurt if there would be exchange of gunfire.]
Lacson said he had also confirmed through his contacts in Ozamiz that the Parojinogs fought back with authorities during the raid.
“I asked around from people I had contact with doon sa area. Noong mag-a-assault na ang pulis, they were fired upon by the security people. So all hell broke loose,” the senator said.
None of them deserve being murdered
But Minority Leader Franklin Drilon thinks the Senate should conduct an inquiry.
“The search warrant was served early morning. Why does it have to be served in darkness?” Drilon said.
Also, Sen. Leila de Lima wants to know what really happened during the raid.
“Let us be clear about this. None of them deserve being murdered. They deserve being brought to justice for all their crimes, but not being murdered in cold blood. Their being Mindanao’s warlords and mafia bosses does not justify their murder,” she said in a statement issued Tuesday.
“The Parojinog’s and their Kuratong Baleleng’s crimes do not justify their murder, in the same way that Duterte and his DDS (Davao Death Squad)’s crimes in Davao City do not justify his murder, she added.
