De Lima rejects cops’ ‘nanlaban’ tale, seeks probe on Parojinog raid

Sen. Leila De Lima. (File photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Senator Leila de Lima is urging the Senate leadership to investigate the “suspicious circumstances” behind the raid that killed Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and 14 persons, including his family, last Sunday.

De Lima on Wednesday filed Senate Resolution (SR) No. 453 directing the appropriate Senate committee to investigate the raid.

“It appears that the fact that the search warrant was implemented under the cover of darkness and with the cameras disabled indicated that there is a malevolent intent under the guise of implementing a warrant,” De Lima said in the resolution.

De Lima said the raid on the Parojinogs bore a “striking similarity”  to the one that led to the death of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. in a Leyte city jail.

The Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs launched several inquiries on the death of Espinosa and his fellow inmate Raul Yap during a search operation by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Eastern Visayas in November last year.

The committee, chaired by Senator Panfilo Lacson, found that the police operatives’ killing of Espinosa was “premeditated.”

But this time, Lacson said he saw no irregularity in the police raid against the Parojinogs since it was conducted in their residence.

“A search warrant is not a warrant to kill, or a death sentence, and the suspicious pattern of how search warrants are being implemented by the PNP, especially by Chief Inspector Espenido, resulting in the killing of a considerable number of human beings, create the impression that search warrants are merely being used by the PNP to facilitate extra-judicial killings of mere suspects in accordance with the ‘nanlaban’ narrative, where [they] are always said to have engaged the police in a firefight,” De Lima said.

The detained senator also said that the continued effectivity of martial law in Mindanao emboldens the police to conduct “such highly questionable modus” in the future.

“In light of the continued effectivity of martial law in Mindanao, there appears reason to fear that the PNP might be further emboldened to continue with such highly questionable modus, especially considering that the deaths of suspects resulting from so-called firefights in PNP operations have not be stemmed despite various investigations conducted by the Senate, including the probe the Senate committee on justice and human rights on the spate of extrajudicial killing cases,” she said.

“Such possibility, thus, makes it imperative that the Senate conduct a deeper probe into these disturbing pattern of abuse, especially in the context of martial law,” De Lima said./ac