Duterte backs cops in Parojinog killing

The late Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. (Photo from his Facebook account)

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday backed the policemen behind the raid that led to the death of Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. and 15 others on Sunday morning.

“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 military soldier,” Duterte told reporters in an ambush interview after attending the 113th founding anniversary of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in Quezon City.

The President said the Parojinogs ran Ozamis City like a “feudal state.”

“They were running the city as if it was a feudal state of the family. Kaya sinabi ko, ‘Huwag ninyong gawain ‘yan.’ Eh ‘pag hindi ninyo sinunod — sasabihin, ‘Bakit namatay?'” he said.

“Parojinog has been there and you can ask the ordinary citizen of Ozamiz,” he added.

The chief executive had earlier tagged the Parijinogs as among the narcopoliticians operating in Mindanao.

The President said he would ‘answer” for the deadly raid.

“I will answer for it. I ordered it,” he said.

“And so my order to the military and the police and rightly so: to destroy the organization, both the supplier, the users and everybody connected with the organization because they keep alive the trade,” he added.

During his speech, Duterte recalled how he summoned local chief executives in Malacanang on his war on drugs.

“Well, I will make it public. One time, I called for all of them. Sa kanila… Hindi ko kayo niyaya. I barred the media. Three batches. Sinabi ko talaga sa kanila, “Do not do it. Do not do it because my order is to destroy the organizations,'” he said.

In January this year, Duterte cursed at and threatened local chief executives involved in the illegal drug trade during a meeting in Malacanang.