PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday defended the bloody raid that led to the deaths of Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and 15 other people, insisting that drug suspects who put up a fight against the police should end up dead.
“The police and the military should make sure that their enemies are dead. Otherwise, if the other guy can still pull the trigger, you will end up with a dead police or a dead… soldier,” Duterte said on the sidelines of ceremonies marking the 113th anniversary of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“I don’t want to be embarrassed. I declared war against drugs, so don’t embarrass me,” he said, addressing the police in Filipino.
Parojinog, who was among the politicians tagged by President Rodrigo Duterte as a narco-politician, was killed in a pre-dawn raid, along with his wife Susan, siblings Mona and Octavio, and 11 security personnel and supporters.
Parojinog’s daughter, Vice Mayor Nova Parojinog, was said to be in a relationship with detained drug lord Herbert Colanggo.
“You are up against an organization. Parojinog has been there and you can ask the ordinary citizen of Ozamiz. Ask them how many police have died,” he said.
The police said the Parojinogs were killed in a shootout and denied suggestions that they were the victims of a rubout.
In his speech at the same event, Duterte claimed the Parojinog family had been running Ozamiz like it was a feudal state.
He said his order to the military and the police was to destroy the organization, both the suppliers and the buyers and everybody connected with the organization because they keep the illegal drug trade alive.
Duterte also fended off criticism of the police decision to serve the search warrant in the middle of the night.
“A warrant of arrest can really be served any time of the day or night,” he said.
The death toll from the police raid in Ozamiz City reached 16 following the death of another relative of slain Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., police said Wednesday.
Daryl Parojinog, the mayor’s nephew who was wounded in the raid, died, their family lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said Tuesday.
Detained Senator Leila de Lima questioned the serving of warrants under the cover of darkness and the disabling of the CCTV cameras before the police raid. With Macon Ramos-Araneta
