Duterte wants Espenido back in Ozamiz City

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the inauguration of the Cavite Gateway Terminal in Tanza, Cavite on November 22, 2018. TOTO LOZANO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Wednesday said he wants Chief Insp.

Jovie Espenido back in Ozamiz City, Misamis Oriental.

During the groundbreaking ceremony of the Ozamiz Airport Modernization Project in Ozamiz City, Duterte asked the crowd if they wanted Espenido back.

“Gusto niyong balik si Espenido (Do you want Espenido reinstated here)?” Duterte asked the crowd, who cheered and applauded in response.

Espenido is currently assigned in Calbayog City, Samar. Prior to that, he was also assigned as chief of police in Virac, Catanduanes.

In the middle of his speech, Duterte called Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, Director General Oscar Albayalde, to bring Espenido back to Ozamiz.

“I’ll make Espenido go back here as well as the other police who are really very foolish,” Duterte said.

Duterte said he would also commission Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to ask Espenido to return.

“I will commission Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to ask Espenido. When Espenido comes back, I’ll tell him, ‘Scrape this place clean,” Duterte said.

In 2016, Espenido was the chief of police in Albuera, Leyte when the town’s then Mayor Rolando Espinosa, a drug suspect, was shot dead inside the sub-provincial jail in Baybay City.

He was transferred to Ozamiz the following year, wherein then Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and 14 others linked to illegal drugs were killed in a pre-dawn raid shoot out.