QUEZON CITY – Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, the so-called poster boy of the Duterte drug war, said here today that the Philippine National Police is the biggest crime group in the country, raising more questions on the legitimacy of drug busts and search operations that resulted in thousands of killings during the previous administration.

Espenido also said that he agreed with Rep. Romeo Acop’s conclusion that Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Duterte’s first PNP Director General, is the “lord” of the country’s biggest crime group.

In his testimony before the Quadcomm, an aggrupation of four committees at the House of Representatives, Espenido affirmed his written statement that then PNP Chief Bato Dela Rosa had him assigned to Ozamiz to “eliminate” or “neutralize” the Parojinog drug ring headed by Mayor Reynaldo “Aldong” Parojinog, Jr.

Espenido said dela Rosa personally handpicked him for the Ozamiz assignment after his successful disbandment of the Kerwin Espinosa drug ring in Albuera, Leyte. On November 5, 2016, Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa, the father of Kerwin, was gunned down and killed during the implementation of a search warrant inside his cell at the Baybay provincial jail in Leyte. Alleged drug personality Raul Yap was also killed in that raid.

Ozamiz Mayor Parojinog was killed together with fifteen others including his wife during a pre-dawn raid headed by Espenido. Parojinog’s daughter Nova Princess, Ozamiz’s vice mayor at the time, was arrested and eventually convicted of drug-related charges arising from the operation.

Espenido said that dela Rosa together with former President Rodrigo Duterte arrived in Ozamiz and congratulated him and his men immediately after the deadly search warrant implementation.

Duterte was famous for constantly waiving a list that supposedly included drug lords and their protectors in government including police personnel, judges, and prosecutors. The former President himself announced the Parojinogs’ inclusion in the list.

Espenido said he implemented six search warrants issued by a Quezon City trial court after he got morally convinced that he had to implement Dela Rosa’s “direct order” to “neutralize” Parojinog. It was the Criminal Investigation and Investigation Group of the PNP that applied for the search warrants.

Espenido bewailed the repeated reappearance of his name in the drug lists drawn up by police generals. He said this was to destroy his credibility so that the complaints he filed against fellow officers would be dismissed.

Espenido said he suspected dela Rosa of having caused the dismissal of complaints that he filed against his fellow police officers who were identified by Mayor Espinosa as having mulcted protection money from his drug group.

Espenido also testified that police units received rewards after every successful implementation of oplan tokhang – the famous phrase appended to the Duterte drug war.

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