The police chief of Ozamiz City is in “hot water” for a viral video that allegedly showed him hitting a drug suspect and for purportedly harassing a local government official there.
The video clip showed Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido, the city police director of Ozamiz, allegedly repeatedly slapping a male individual inside a police precinct last March. The video came out on social media a few days ago.
Senior Superintendent Lemuel Gonda, police regional office spokesperson, said they would conduct an investigation into the incident.
The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption earlier called on the Philippine National Police to look into the incident.
Last week, Ozamiz Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog also complained that the city police chief and some of his men showed up near her house late night on May 4.
Parojinog said the policemen were heavily armed and had surrounded her residence in Barangay San Roque, also known as “Lawis,” a few meters away from where his father, Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., lives.
The vice mayor said her brother called her up and told her Espenido and his men was outside her house.
It was a good thing, she said, that her residence was installed with CCTV cameras that captured the incident.
“I was really disturbed,” the younger Parojinog told reporters in an interview, adding that she found no reason why policemen would surround her home. “Unsa may akong sala (What’s my violation)? Why were they acting that way?”
She then called up her uncle, Octavio Parojinog, and asked him to talk to Espenido. Moments later, the police pulled out.
She said she also heard that Espenido allegedly threatened to burn the whole Lawis if they cannot catch the suspected drug dealers in the area, and even advised the Parojinogs to move elsewhere so they will be spared.
“Why would we leave this place? We’ve been here even before he set foot in Ozamiz. Besides, there are more law-abiding people living here than those who are engaged in illegal drugs,” she said.
She said she is considering on filing a formal complaint against Espenido and his fellow police officers who were there on the night of May 4.
Gonda said they will investigate Espenido on the allegations. He advised the complainants to file a formal complaint to the PNP-10 regional office at Camp Alagar in Barangay Lapasan.
As of this writing Monday, Espenido could not be reached for comment, but in previous interviews with journalists in Ozamiz, Espenido was said to have denied saying such statement.
Before his assignment in Ozamis City last year, Espenido was the former police chief of Albuera, Leyte, the hometown of suspected big time drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa whose father, former town mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., was killed inside a prison facility in that province last year.(PNA)
