ILIGAN CITY—Barely two days after the death of her younger brother inside the detention cell of the Ozamiz City Police, Melodina Parojinog Malingin, another member of the Parojinog family who has been in jail since 2017 for illegal drugs, died at the MHARS Medical Center at 7:45 a.m. Sunday, September 6.
Jail Officer (JO) 1 Christian Mendez, the jail nurse, said they rushed Malingin to the hospital at 6 p.m. on Saturday after she pooped black stool.
“When we checked her vital signs, we found out her BP (blood pressure) was very low, which prompted us to bring her to the hospital for further medical assessment,” Mendez said. “This morning, our jail guard assigned at the hospital informed us that she died at 7:45 a.m. while at the ICU (intensive care unit),” Mendez said.
Attending physicians at the MHARS Medical Center in Ozamiz City cited the cause of death as “cardiogenic shock secondary to intractable cardiac arrhythmia atrial fibrillation to ventricular tachycardia.”
Mendez said Malingin had been bedridden since weeks ago and could no longer talk properly before she was brought to the hospital.
On June 17, she underwent dilatation and curettage procedure in her uterus due to abnormal uterine bleeding. She was discharged eight days later and was brought back to jail. Since then, her health had been deteriorating, the jail nurse said.
Malingin was jailed for dangerous drugs charges after police seized eight kilograms of shabu (crystal meth) in her house during a raid in December 2017.
On Friday, September 4, Malingin’s younger brother Ricardo “Ardot” Parojinog was found dead inside his detention cell at the Ozamiz City police station after he was flown to the city on Thursday to attend the next day’s arraignment of his case for illegal possession of firearms and explosives that were found during a 2017 raid in his house in Barangay Bagakay.
Police said he failed to respond to their wake up call the following day.
Later, they reported Parojinog to have succumbed to cardiopulmonary arrest.
Malingin and Ardot were siblings of former Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo “Aldong” Parojinog who was killed with 15 others in a police raid at the family’s properties in July 2017. The raid led to the arrest of Aldong’s children, former vice mayor Nova Parojinog and Reynaldo Parojinog, Jr.
Ardot was not at home at the time of the raid.
In 2017, President Duterte offered a P5-million prize for the capture of Ardot, whom the President had tagged for having alleged ties with the illegal drug trade. Ardot was arrested in Taiwan in May 2018 and was deported in July that year.
Since his arrest in 2018, Ardot had been detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) custodial center before he was flown to Ozamiz city to attend the hearing of his case.