PNP: Espenido’s assignment to Iloilo City canceled

SENIOR Superintendent Henry Biñas will lead the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) not the controversial Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido.

This was announced Saturday by Chief Superintendent Cesar Binag, director of Police Regional Office in Western Visayas.

Binag said they received an order from the Philippine National Police (PNP) general headquarters in Camp Crame that Espenido’s reassignment as officer-in-charge of the ICPO has been canceled.

“We received an order from the national headquarters that effective September 1, Senior Superintendent Henry Biñas [is the ICPO chief],” said Binag in Filipino.

Binag’s announcement comes after the top drug lord in Iloilo City, Richard Prevendido, and his son was killed by police officers during a shootout late Friday night in the city’s Jaro district.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Prevendido reportedly resisted arrest when the policemen were serving arrest warrant against him last Friday night.

“Iloilo City’s reportedly most wanted drug personality, Richard Prevendido, was neutralized in a firefight last Friday evening. The incident occurred when the suspect, head of the Prevendido Group, one of the two major drug groups in Iloilo, resisted arrest,” Abella said in a statement read over governmentowned dzRB.

Following the order, the PNP said Espenido will remain in Ozamiz City until he will be reassigned to a new assignment.

Last Wednesday, PNP chief Ronald Dela Rosa said that he will discuss again with President Rodrigo Duterte the transfer of Espinido to ICPO.

“Nagkakaroon kami ng alinlangan dahil nga the people of Ozamiz are voicing, airing their protest against that order,” he said.

Espenido, who recently received awards for his accomplishments in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, is the current chief Ozamiz City Police Office.

“Ayaw nila umalis si Espenido doon so mahirap din. They will be left hanging to that incident and hindi pa totally nag-stabilize ‘yung sitwasyon ng Ozamiz then alisin s’ya doon. Ma-demoralize ‘yung mga tao,” Dela Rosa added.

Espenido was the Ozamiz City police chief when city mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. was killed in a drug raid. He was also the municipal police chief in Albuera, Leyte when town mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. was arrested in October 2016 and later on slain in his detention cell in Baybay town in November the same year.

Both mayors were included in Duterte’s narco list for their involvement in drugs.

Duterte last week said he would assign Espenido as officer-in-charge of the ICPO as he warned Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog to stop “all drug-related activities.”

He called Mabilog a drug protector and even hit the mayor for his “Palace-like” house.

Duterte earlier called Iloilo as the most “shabulized” in the country.