OZAMIZ City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, who was killed in a police raid Sunday tested positive for gunpowder residue, indicating there was a shootout at his home, a spokesman for the Philippine National Police said Thursday.
PNP Spokesperson Chief Superintendent Dionardo Carlos, quoting a partial report from the Crime Laboratory Region 10, said Parojinog suffered two gunshot wounds to his face and chest.
“The mayor and seven others with him tested positive in the paraffin test,” Carlos said in Filipino.
Fifteen people, including the mayor’s wife Susan, were killed in Sunday’s dawn raid. A 16th victim died in hospital.
Among those killed were the mayor’s brother, Provincial Board Member Octavio Parojinog and sister Mona.
Carlos said testing positive for paraffin means that a gun near a person’s hand had been fired, but admitted that this was not conclusive.
“It will show us that the firearms that were recovered in the premises were used and there was a gun battle, there was an exchange of gunfire and it will reinforce that there was an exchange of fire inside the premises,” he said.
Carlos said only eight of the 15 bodies were autopsied because the family had waived autopsies for the others.
Susan and Mona were not subject to paraffin tests because no guns were found near their bodies.
Carlos denied that the fatalities were shot at close range, saying the evidence showed that the shots were “delivered at a distance.”
The Justice department on Thursday indicted the two children of the mayor, Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog-Echavez and Reynaldo Jr., charging them with violating drug and firearms laws.
Reynaldo Jr. was also charged with illegal possession of explosives after police seized a grenade from him.
The indictment came after the Justice Department panel of prosecutors found probable cause in the complaint filed by the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group against the two.
Prosecutors said there were no licenses for the firearms in the house of the vice mayor, while the siblings were caught with sachets of shabu.
“The searching officers positively testified that they clearly saw in plain view the illegal drugs while they were searching for firearms which were both in the constructive custody of respondent Nova Princess Parojing. These is probable cause to separately charge respondent Nova Princess Parojinog for illegal possession of dangerous drugs,” the resolution said.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, meanwhile, said his committee would conduct an investigation into the Ozamiz raid if witnesses are willing to come forward and testify in a public hearing.
“I haven’t read the resolution yet. If witnesses are willing to face the Senate to testify on the probability of summary executions or excesses in the police operations conducted, I believe that an investigation is in order,” Lacson said in a text message to reporters.
Lacson was referring to the resolution filed by detained Senator Leila de Lima , which asked the appropriate committee to conduct a probe, in aid of legislation, into the bloody Ozamiz raid.
Lacson had earlier said that whatever are the circumstances of the deaths, “at least this time, the mayor and the others killed were not under detention in a government facility.”
The remark was a reference to the killing last year of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa, who died in a police raid on his jail cell inside a sub-provincial prison.
