Ex-vice mayor’s transfer to Bicutan blocked

Lawyers of former Ozamiz City Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog have asked the court to allow her to remain at Camp Crame instead of transferring her to the Special Intensive Care jail of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Bicutan, Taguig City. Parojinog is being held at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center (PNPCC) on charges of illegal possession of firearms and illegal drugs filed before two separate Quezon City courts.

“Simply put, she [is] considered a high-value target and a high-risk detainee and to date, her circumstances have not changed from the time she was arrested,” her lawyers said in a 22-page opposition filed in Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 95 which has jurisdiction over the illegal possession of firearms case.

Parojinog was arrested with her brother, Reynaldo Parojinog Jr., in a series of police raids conducted on July 30, 2017 on their houses in Ozamiz City over reports they were keeping drugs and firearms. Their father, former Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., their mother and 13 others were killed in the police operations.

State prosecutors claimed her “continued detention at the PNPCC affords her special treatment as she is subjected to a different set of rules and procedures not afforded to all other detainees under BJMP control.”