Police threw a grenade at Nova Parojinog, the vice mayor of the southern Philippine city, Ozamiz, after gathering her and several others in a room, during a raid on her home in a search for illegal drugs, Ferdinand Topacio, Parojinog’s lawyer said Thursday.
The grenade did not explode but the raid yielded PHP1.4 million (US$28,000) in cash, half a kilogram of suspected methamphetamine, and several firearms.
READ: Philippine mayor, his wife, 13 others shot dead in drug raid
Topacio said this happened even though Parojinog and company were ready to comply with the police. However, Jovie Espenido, the police chief of Ozamiz City said it was an act of self defense. According to Espenido, his men had to evade the Parojinog camp’s attempt to throw a grenade at them first.
A similar incident happened to Parojinog’s father, Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., who was killed in his home on Sunday. Mayor Parojinog was one of the local government officials named in Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s narco-list but he denied any involvement in the illegal drugs trade.
Lawrence Clarin, a lawyer that represents another member of the Parojinog family, demanded that the National Bureau of Investigation conduct the investigation at the scene as well as the autopsy to ensure that a third party would oversee the probe, but the police refused.
Re-published from ABS-CBN News
