Ozamiz police chief not afraid of retaliation by Parojinogs
Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido, head of the Ozamiz City police, said Wednesday he is not afraid of retaliation from the Parojinogs following a raid where Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and 15 others died.
“I am not afraid because I know my family, my wife, my children and my life are owned by God", Espenido said in a press conference after the Philippine National Police’s 116 th anniversary.
"We are cops. Either we do our job right or not we will still die that is why Espenido is not afraid of anything", he added.
Espenido said he talked to the Parojinogs and the drug lords to surrender their illegal drugs and unregistered firearms when he was assigned in Ozamiz last December but nothing happened.
"I told them to surrender that... Stop the kidnap for ransom, robbery, and extortion", he said.
Espenido said they confiscated around two kilos of suspected shabu and 300 firearms in the house of Mayor Parojinog.
More than 120 individuals involved in drugs were arrested during the buy-bust operation of the Ozamiz police ,Espenido said.
He said he ordered to paralyze the CCTV during their operations after two village watchmen who were supposed to be a police witness were killed.
Espenido said according to some testimonies the drug supply of the Parojinog came from the National Bilibid Prison.
Espenido was chief of police in Albuera, Leyte where Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and another inmate were killed inside their cell while a search warrant was being served at the Baybay City sub-provincial jail on November 5, 2016.
He said he has arrested 5 mayors.
"When I was still PO1, I arrested the mayor in ...Albuera in 2004. Then I was assigned in Gandara, Samar...we arrested and cuffed the mayor then we showed him to the town to prove that there is no untounchable", he said.
Espenido said he will follow the decision of PNP Director General Ronald Dela Rosa to where he should be assigned next.
Dela Rosa said in a press conference on July 7 that Espenido is in demand and a lot of city mayors wanted him as police chief.
Espenido has been a police officer for 21 years and he said he plans to retire at 2020. Alanna Ambi/DMS
