By: Jennifer P. Rendon
After his botched assignment to Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO), is Bacolod City the next destination of controversial Police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido?
“As far as documents at hand showed, it’s a no,” according to Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, Police Regional Office (PRO)-6 spokesperson.
Even Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, PRO-6 director, did not get wind of Espenido’s purported assignment to Bacolod City.
“Wala pa akong balita,” he briefly said.
There were reports that Espenido would be relieved in Ozamiz City and might be reassigned to Bacolod City.
However, Pamuspusan said he had no idea about it for now.
“That’s a matter that the national headquarters will decide on,” he said.
BLOODY TRAIL
Espenido headed the Ozamis City police which led deadly raids against the Parojinog family who were linked to the illegal drug trade.
He was also the chief of police of Albuera, Leyte when the town’s former mayor Rolando Espinosa, also a drug suspect, was shot dead inside his jail cell in 2016 as police officers served a search warrant.
The PNP national headquarters later reassigned Espenido to the ICPO at a time when President Rodrigo Duterte repeatedly linked former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog to illegal drugs.
But the order was recalled even before Espenido reported to Iloilo City.
Some claimed that his reassignment as Iloilo City’s top cop will result in demoralization as he was only a police Major that time.
His promotion as lieutenant colonel is still not commensurate for the position of a city police director, which is held by a police colonel.
In recent months, Bacolod City, as well as Negros Occidental, posted the highest number of illegal drugs operations in Western Visayas.
The amount of illegal drugs seized also reached millions of pesos, a far exceeding confiscations made in other provinces and cities in Western Visayas.
