OZAMIZ CITY, Philippines — A day after the late Ozamiz City mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. and relatives who died with him in the deadly July 30 raids were buried, President Rodrigo Duterte visited the Mindanao city to personally award the police officers who headed the operation.
The mayor, his wife and two siblings were among the 15 persons who were killed in simultaneous pre-dawn police raids on their homes and properties in which authorities claimed to have recovered weapons and drugs.
Duterte also offered a P2-million “per head” bounty “no questions asked,” for the capture of policemen accused of having been in cahoots with the Parojinogs, who he had publicly accused of involvement in the drug trade and reiterated his pledge to grant presidential pardons to members of the uniformed services who may be convicted for killings committed while waging his administration’s war on drugs.
He again took potshots at his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, who he called “gunggong” or a fool for saying nothing had been accomplished by the war on drugs.
At the same time, he defended Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, who is under fire even from administration stalwarts in Congress over the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of crystal meth or “shabu,” even as he said Faledon had written him thrice “asking me to relieve him” because “hindi ko natupad ‘yung pangako ko sa’yo (I couldn’t fulfill my promise to you).”
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