PNP internal affairs probing Ozamiz raid
THE Regional Internal Affairs Service-Northern Mindanao (RIAS-10) has launched an investigation on the deadly Sunday pre-dawn raid in Ozamiz City that killed 15 people including Mayor Reynaldo `Aldong’ Parojinog Sr, his wife, and two siblings.
Senior Superintendent Geary Galvan, RIAS-10 chief, said a team from the provincial internal affairs service office of Misamis Occidental was ordered to immediately check and probe the bloody operation.
"Automatic yun sa RIAS na pag may namatay sa operation gagawa agad ta yong investigation ," Gal van said.
Galvan said the investigation started Monday, July 31 and may likely last for 15 days before they could determine if there were irregularities or not in implementing the operation.
The RIAS-10 chief said the investigation will focus on the operational procedure employed by the raiding team.
"Titingnan sa investigation kung nasunod bang police ang procedure sap ag-con du ctn go per at ion ," Gal van said.
The investigating team is also set to conduct ocular inspection at the houses of the Parojinogs raided by the police last Sunday.
Galvan said should the police investigating body find irregularities in the operation, the members of the raiding team may likely face administrative charges for grave misconduct.
Lawyer Robert Lou Elango, chairman of the Police Regional Appellate Board of the National Police Commission CommissionNorthern Mindanao (Napolcom-10), said they will closely monitor the RIAS investigation.
“Dili sa mi mosulod sa investigation kay aron dili mag-overlap ang gihimo sa PNP,”Elango said.
Elango said they already asked reports of the operation from the Misamis Occidental police.
“Naa tay nadunggan nga alleged irregularities pero anyway naa naman investigation gihimo ang PNP. Kami stand by and nag monitor mi sa ilang investigation. Kung dunay part nga dili satisfied sa investigation nga gi-conduct sa PNP pwede mi mosulod sa investigation,” Elango said.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Chief Superintendent Dionardo Carlos, said the probe being conducted is a standard operating procedure in the PNP in cases where there are casualties involved in a law enforcement operation.
Carlos said the policemen who took part in the operation will be summoned once the PNP-IAS found irregularities in the operation.
However, Carlos said the Crime Laboratory with the assistance of the CIDG is still in processing the evidence recovered during the raid, including the high powered firearms and suspected illegal drugs.
Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, legal counsel of the Parojinogs, raised several points which he finds irregular in the operation including the disabling of the CCTV cameras and the operation is “overkill.”
He said the police should not have cut the CCTV cameras in the house if they really are not trying to hide anything of if they really want to be transparency with their operation.
Topacio said the operation was overkill citing that an old woman, particularly the mayor’s wife, Susan, could have been spared doubting that she had firearms and used them against the raiding team.
“I’m all for the war on drugs... but there is such a thing as justified killing, and there is such a thing as overkill,” he said.
“Babaeng matanda, alangan namang bumunot iyon ng M16, M14 at pagbabarilin ang mga pulis. Malayo pong mangyari,” he added.
A day earlier, PNP chief Ronald Dela Rosa defended the operating team, saying what had happened in Ozamiz City was a shootout between the operating teams and members of the mayor’s security aides.
“Labanan naman iyon. Hindi mo naman alam kung sinong tatamaan. Titira ka ng titira kasi tinitira ka din ng kalaban,” he said.
Carlos meanwhile urged the public to refrain from making comments on the incident until the result of the investigation comes out.
“Let us allow the investigators to complete their investigation. Tingnan natin ang account ng operating team... Eventually, they (Parojinogs) will have their own witness as they claim now and present them before the court,” he said. With a report from SunStar Philippines