Joke? Police tried to file complaint vs deceased Parojinogs

Talk about overkill.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) attempted to bring a criminal complaint against slain Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. and his wife Susan on Aug. 11 — nearly two weeks after they were killed in a bloody police raid on their home.

A check made by the Inquirer showed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not fall for the booboo.

A DOJ official, who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity, said the complaint, which was prepared and signed by CIDG Northern Mindanao head Supt. Tom Tuzon, was actually “rejected for being infirm.”

“Death extinguishes the criminal liability of any person. That’s very basic,” said the source, referring to Article 89 of the Revised Penal Code.

“The CIDG personnel who tried to submit the complaint should know that. What they did was a big mistake. It was like a joke,” the justice official said.

In a complaint, the CIDG said it wanted to bring cases for violation of Republic Act No. 9165, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, and illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives against the Parojinogs.

Interestingly, the complaint identified the Parojinog couple as both “deceased.”

It named Senior Insp. Gilbern Banderado and SPO3 Richard Salcedo as the “complainant.”

The complaint narrated the simultaneous raids on several houses owned by the Parojinogs, their daughter Ozamiz Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog and other family members.

“Upon approaching the premises of the [Parojinog couple’s house], the advance/entering security teams from Ozamiz City Police Station were met [by a] volley of fire, hitting the [police] patrol car and one member of the team,” it said.

The CIDG said the exchange of gunfire “resulted to the instantaneous death” of the mayor and his wife.

Recovered from their house were several firearms, bundles of cash, explosives and plastic sachets containing “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride).

Meanwhile, Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, the chief of the Ozamiz police station who led the simultaneous police operations on the Parojinogs’ residences, on Tuesday went to the DOJ to attend the preliminary hearing of the multiple murder case brought against him.

The case involved the deaths of nine people who were killed in an earlier police operation against suspected members of a local robbery group in Ozamiz.

Espenido vehemently denied that the alleged robbers were summarily executed as alleged by a relative of one of those killed.

Calling it a harassment suit, he claimed the Parojinog family paid the complainant to bring the case in the DOJ office in Manila.