I had the chance recently to sitdown and drink coffee which eventually ended in a lengthy dinner with the controversial Police Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, the chief of the Ozamiz City Police Station, who put an end to the reign of Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog in a police operation that killed 13 members of the Parojinog group, family members included.
Col. Espenido just received his order of re assignment to the Police Regional Office (PRO-6) and was eventually assigned as Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) Deputy City Director for Operations.
Bacolod City, in the words of Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo is worst compared to Iloilo City in terms of the illegal drug problem.
And so goes the story that Jovie Espenido will head the cleansing of Bacolod City.
It was a very casual conversation interrupted by a few boisterous laughter on topics related to police operations and some of his men who in the middle of bursting gunfires would end up telling him that Nova Parojinog was not wearing bra when they entered her house.
I was expecting a timid and stern-faced police officer when I called his classmate Police Major Charlie Sustento to help me get thru his schedule. Afterall, Espenido has the reputation of a mad killer among the ranks of the Philippine National Police (PNP) having left his past assignments with dead targets and all are glamourous suspects.
The public can count Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuerra, Leyte and Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog of Ozamis City as among those statistics under his name as chief of police.
I am one those who criticized him because of the deadly police operations under his command. He, however, shared revealing behind the scenes stories about the said deaths which made me understand Jovie Espenido better.
I am not at the liberty to disclose the very personal and sensitive stories he told us nor defend his style of executing orders of the police hierarchy but I must say Jovie himself is a poor victim.
His promotion was signed in 2017 but was only given to him last week.
Of course, the next question is why which would explain how the late Mayor Espinosa confided to him that he is left with no choice but to wait for his death even inside the prison. It was not Espenido who carried the serving of a search warrant inside the prison cell of Espinosa but the personnel of another PNP Unit, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
Everybody questioned the operation of CIDG and so was Espenido who only wanted to protect his prime witness. The illegal drug trade however has taken a huge toll inside the system of the government and it spared no one including those who signs search warrants and the higher officers of the police thus Espinosa must die.
In the middle of the investigation and the handling of physical evidences, Espenido was steadfast in his own beliefs knowing he has not done anything wrong which of course was a headache for those who have direct connections with Mayor Espinosa. His name was suspiciously implicated in cahoots with the Espinosas.
It was when he was assigned by then PNP Chief and now Senator Bato de la Rosa to Ozamis City.
Many thought of it as a logical assignment but for Jovie it wasn’t. It was more of a “Jovie tigasin ka, dun ka sa area ni Parojinog tingnan natin kung ano magagawa mo!”
An officer who does his job from the heart, in tears, he accepted the assignment and liberated Ozamis City from the cruel hands of the Kuratong Baleleng Gang leader Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog.
I don’t agree with killing drug suspects but Espenido’s personal account of the atrocities of Parojinog and how his connections up to the highest level of the PNP and the government has concealed his crimes made me ask him why he did not shoot Nova Parojinog.
Another officer tried to answer lightly on his behalf but Jovie was steadfast in his answer. He said we are policemen and during engagement we have to give suspects a chance to raise their hands and we spare them the bullets. Nova did and so she was spared.
I must say that such answer of Espenido caught my solid attention. The man we taught as a butcher and a mad killer is simply too passionate and if I may say idealistic of his job.
Together with another controversial PNP figure in Iloilo Police Major Jonathan Pinuela, Jovie Espenido said that the police must do their job and if killing is a necessity in the course of the operation then it has to be done.
I asked him of his opinion on the implication of resigned PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde in the operation of the alleged “ninja cops”. He gave a very meaningful answer. He said that for the campaign against illegal drugs to succeed, the change should not come from PO1 up but from the generals down.
I was observing him all through out the night. He was not wearing anything grand. His polo shirt is not branded. He was too sincere.
I attempted to raise the Jed Mabilog story. Unexpectedly, Espenido said: “Napulitika gud.”
As to his new assignment in Bacolod City, the famous Jovie Espenido said, “Trabahuon ta ni.’
Welcome to Western Visayas, Col. Espenido.
