Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. INQUIRER.net file photo / CATHY MIRANDA
“Killing will only come if they resist arrest.”
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said this to defend President Rodrigo Duterte’s warning to the Parojinog clan on Wednesday night that he will finish them off if they will not stop threatening witnesses against them.
“The Parojinog family, stop threatening people. I will wipe you from the face of the earth. I’m telling you,” Duterte said in his speech in Ozamiz City.
Asked if the President’s threat means the killing of the entire family believed of having links in illegal drug trade, Panelo said: “No. Killing will only come if they resist arrest. If they do violence to those who are enforcing the law.”
READ: I will really finish all of you off,’ Duterte tells Parojinogs of Ozamiz City
Panelo, who is also Duterte’s chief legal counsel, said Duterte means “he will pursue to the ends of the earth these criminals until they are behind bars.”
He added that Duterte is merely trying to fulfill his Constitutional mandate to ensure the safety of the people.
In July last year, Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Jr. and 14 others were killed in a series of anti-drug raids led by Police Superintendent Jovie Espenido.
On Wednesday night, Duterte also ordered the return of the controversial police official to Ozamiz City.
Panelo explained that Duterte’s directive to reinstate Espenido is meant to address the growing drug incidence in the city since the police official was transferred.
“Espenido was successful in ridding the place of drug lords, those who push through drugs… since his departure, the drug incidence there increased by leaps and bounds. So the President needs men like Espenido to do the work,” Panelo said. /jpv
READ: Duterte wants Espenido back in Ozamiz