(Eagle News) — A Senate investigation into the Ozamiz raids that led to the deaths of Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. and several others could be in order after Senator Leila de Lima filed a resolution for such.
“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,” Senator Panfilo Lacson, chair of the committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said.
Senator Richard Gordon, blue ribbon committee chair, said the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service should automatically investigate any incident that involves the deaths of individuals during police operations.
If anyone was “not satisfied” with the results of the PNP-IAS inquiry, though, he said an inquiry in the Senate could push through.
“Kung iyan ay darating sa Senado, I am ready to investigate..Kung may ebidensiya, we will go after them,” he said in a television interview.
According to Lacson, in the absence of witnesses who can testify to what happened in the Ozamiz raids, “I don’t want to sacrifice the time of the Senate for our budget hearings that will start early next week, not to mention the pending bills that I have to tackle in my committees.”
Apart from Parojinog, his wife Susan, his brother Octavio Parojinog Jr, their sister Mona, and at least 10 others were killed in the Sunday raids in the family’s houses.
Human rights advocates said there had been a rubout, but members of the Regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Misamis Occidental Police Provincial Office, and the Ozamiz City Police Station had said they only retaliated after they were met by a volley of fire in the residences while they were implementing search warrants.
President Rodrigo Duterte has stood by the policemen, saying they had the right to defend themselves, and noting that warrants could be implemented any time of the day.