Philippine mayor, wife among 14 killed in drugs-linked raid
Parojinog is third mayor to be killed in crackdown
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines: Philippine police fatally shot a city mayor who was among the politicians the president publicly linked to illegal drugs and at least 13 others in gunbattles that erupted Sunday in the south, police said, in one of the bloodiest anti-drug assaults so far under his crackdown.
Officers were to serve warrants to Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. of Ozamiz city to search his houses for suspected presence of unlicensed firearms when gunmen allegedly opened fire on the police, sparking clashes that killed the mayor and several others, Senior Superintendent Jaysen de Guzman said by phone.
Besides Parojinog, those killed included his wife and a brother, according to police. Aside from the mayor’s residence, three other houses were raided in the port city in Misamis Occidental province and resulted in the arrests of five suspects. At least one police officer was wounded during the clashes, police said.
“We have reports that armed bodyguards are carrying unlicensed weapons,” regional police Chief Superintendent Timoteo Pacleb said, adding that an undetermined number of assault rifles, grenades, suspected methamphetamine and cash were seized in the raids.
Parojinog, who also faced corruption charges, had denied any links to illegal drugs. He was the third mayor to be killed under President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs, which has left more than 3,000 dead in reported gunfights with police and thousands of other unexplained deaths of suspects.
The police officers were “met with volleys of fire from (the mayor’s) security, prompting the Philippine National Police personnel to retaliate,” Pacleb said in a statement.