The Department of Justice has given Ozamiz City police chief Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido more time to answer the criminal charges filed against him over the killing of nine suspected robbers during an operation last June.
Espenido showed up before the DoJ for the preliminary investigation hearing on murder and arbitrary detention charges.
The police official was required to file his counter-affidavit, but he was not ready to submit his answer. This prompted Prosecution Attorney Loverhette Jeffrey Villordon to give the respondents until Aug. 29 to file their answers.
Espenido earlier said the robbery suspects were killed during a shootout with the police last June 1—not a rubout as alleged in the complaint filed by relatives of Francisco Manzano, one of the slain suspects.
Besides Espenido, the other respondents include Chief Inspector Glyndo Lagrimas, Senior Police Officer 4 Renato Martir Jr. and Police Officer 1 Sandra Louise Nadayag. They were directed to submit their counter-affidavit on the same hearing.
The complaint accused the policemen of rubbing out the suspects during the series of raids in Cabinti and Balintawak villages last June 1, where six other suspects were arrested.
Police recovered firearms, pieces of jewelry, and sachets of suspected shabu from the suspects during the raids.
Espenido recently received an award from President Rodrigo Duterte for his contribution to the government’s war on drugs as chief of the Ozamiz City Police Station and as previous chief of police of Albuera, Leyte.
On July 30, he led policemen in the dawn raid that killed Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, his wife and 14 others at the mayor’s house.
Members of the Parojinog family have claimed the items seized during the raids—including unlicensed firearms, ammunition, drugs and cash—were planted, and that the mayor and the other fatalities did not fire at the policemen.
The mayor’s children, Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog-Echavez and Reynaldo Jr., were arrested during the raids, and later on indicted for charges of drug possession and illegal possession of firearms.
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group filed similar charges against Mayor Parojinog and his wife before the DoJ.
However, the DoJ rejected the complaint, citing the rule in criminal procedures that extinguishes criminal liability of a dead person.