Amid the chaotic scene and milling crowd that had gathered outside the house of slain Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog on Sunday morning, at a little past 6 o’clock in the morning, even as law enforcers were still in the process of searching, inspecting, barricading and clearing the area, a man, wounded and in obvious pain, could be seen crawling out and asking for help.
He was not attended to right away.
Jun Erquita, a member of the Ozamiz Rescue responders, said, in the vernacular: “The police were holding us back. We could see he has sprawled but trying to crawl out. There were wounds on the side of his body.”
But, eventually, the rescuers managed to bring him first aid.
The man turned out to be a member of the utility staff at the Parojinog household who apparently played dead for a few hours until he felt it was safe to emerge because there were by then plenty of people milling about.
After he was given first aid and his bullet wounds were dressed, the man hurriedly left.
He went into hiding for fear that police wound come for him.
He told his relatives that, when the police team arrived in the wee hours (about 2:00 a.m. or so) to serve a search warrant, he heard Mayor Parojinog descending the stairs in the dark to try and prevent his wife from further screaming in panic.
“Ma’m Susan was shouting, Saklolo! Help us! But nobody came. Then, the explosion.”
It was a grenade that went off inside the house.
Our man who survived the carnage was in the kitchen beside the staircase where the mayor and his two brothers were standing.
It was possible the three partly shielded him from a direct spray of shrapnel.
It was only when the sun was up that he dared crawl out of the house.
He had shrapnel wounds, plus he was fired upon by a man wearing a balaclava.
Even as he was being rescued and given emergency medical attention, authorities continued their search inside the house.
Click and watch this video report below: