MANILA, Philippines — After being rebuffed by the court, detained Ozamiz City Vice Mayor Nova Parojinog and her brother Reynaldo Jr. pleaded with Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa to let them visit the wake of their parents, the late Mayor Reynaldo Sr. and Susan, who were among 15 persons killed in the deadly July 30 police raids.
The appeal to Dela Rosa was made in a letter made available to media by the vice mayor’s lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, on Saturday after the siblings’ extremely urgent motion for furlough was denied by Ozamiz Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Edmundo Pintac
“The court chooses the path of caution and gives greater weight to the assessment of the police more especially that of the Ozamiz city police,” Pintac said, citing intelligence information about a “daring and bloody rescue of the accused [that] would be carried out once the accused are allowed furlough.”
The mayor, his wife, his sister Mona and brother Octavio Jr., a member of the Misamis Occidental provincial board, are scheduled to be buried on August 13.
The siblings’ letter, handwritten in Tagalog on a yellow pad, said they were saddened by the denial of their motion to pay their last respects to their parents, calling it “ang pinakmasakit na kabanata ng aming buhay magkapatid (the most painful chapter in our lives as siblings).”
They also accused the Ozamiz police of “fabricating” the intelligence report about their clan’s supposed violent plans.
“Wala po katotohanan ang lahat nang intel report na iyan. Dahil wala po kami kapasidad para gumamit ng dahas, mang dahas, never namin naging ugali maging madahas (There is no truth to those intelligence reports. Because we have no capacity to use violence, commit violence, and have never been violent),” they said.
“Gagamitin namin ang mga legal na paraan para makamtan ang hustisya sa nangyari sa (aming) pamilya (We will exhaust all legal means to claim justice for what happened to our family),” they added.
THE LETTER OF THE PAROJINOG SIBLINGS, OZAMIZ VICE MAYOR NOVA AND REYNALDO JR.:
