Two mayors have been killed under his command. Since then, the chief of police Jovie Espenido is a celebrity in the Philippines. Critics accuse him of arbitrariness, others thank him for his intrepid use.
In the police station of Ozamiz, it’s in the loft. Cops over noise, with files stacked under the arms, a steady stream of people flowing into the nondescript, two-storey building, some seek help, others to give complaints. At the rear end of the receiving space, a steel door leads into the crammed cell of the guard.
In all the hustle and bustle you would notice the chief of police Jovie Espenido may be little, were it not for the excessive respect shown him by police officers as visitors pay. The petite man seems jovial, speaks gently, and smiles. But his reputation precedes him: The 49-Year-old fights crime with relentless determination. Across the country, it is well-known, because he killed the mayor of Ozamiz. Reynaldo Parajinog was accused of one of the most notorious criminal organizations of the Philippines, headed.
A short process with corrupt elites
Residents of the city say, the Parajinogs would have controlled the drug trade and the pockets due to rampant corruption fully made – up Espenido in the past year, the chief of police in Ozamiz. Everyone – from taxi drivers, to the rich business man had to pay the Parajinogs protection money.
Those who opposed you, tell you, would have killed the thugs in the Pay of the family. The bodies they had in the thick jungle that surrounds the city, or in the port basin and disposed of with Weights on the feet.
The jail cell in the police station of Ozamiz is crowded
Only a few months after Espenidos arrival in the sleepy port town on the island of Mindanao, the mayor was dead. During a RAID in his house the police officers killed Reynaldo Parajinog, his wife and 13 other family members and followers.
It was not the first Time that an encounter with Espenido cost a mayor’s life. On his previous Post in the small town of Albuera was the mayor of Roland Espinosa died mysteriously in his cell in the police station.
Espenido asserts that both men were killed in self-defense. Espinosa had smuggled a gun into the cell, in Ozamiz the fire had been opened on the police, as they wanted to search the house of a citizen, usually Parajinog. Espenidos opponents say, the police have thrown a grenade in the house, although Parajinog would have already.
Dutertes Flagship
In the Philippines, it is not rare that local politicians are projecting their communities like tribal chieftains to govern and organized crime.
Espenido this marriage of politics and crime is abhorrent. And he sees himself on a Mission to fight against it. The investigation of the slain mayor. Should the police pull the heads so out-of-court executions to eliminate powerful criminals?
Espenido denies any wrongdoing, but stands firmly by his Convictions: “If You do things right, we are brothers and sisters, if you don’t, I’ll punish you.”
On the Desk at the police station, the Ten commandments from the Bible hanging
His ruthlessness and President Rodrigo Duterte is useful. He has declared a bloody war against the drug. Since he was elected in 2016, the police and the death squads of thousands of suspected drug users and dealers killed. Also, the corruption has to Duterte in the visor. Parajinog is to master one of ten citizens who were killed after the President had put on a list with politicians, who he suspected of drug trafficking.
Grateful Citizens
Critics such as Senator Antonio Trillanes say, Dutertes drug war have already claimed more than 22,000 people live without the drug trade-to curb. The true goal of the President, the political Opposition to intimidate.
With Espenido Duterte has a willing mate for his hard line. “Since Espenido known in the Art, the kill arbitrarily,” says Trillanes, “he acts as a showcase for the variety police officer, the Duterte wants.”
However, many in Ozamiz are Espenido grateful. Andres Fernandez, a well-known local lawyer, says, his predecessor had to leave by the mayor, lubricate, or would have bowed to him out of fear of his relations to the government. “We have welcomed Dutertes decision to send Espenido,” says Fernandez, “He’s a COP, risking his life. He has been the Parajinogs mercilessly.”
Sermons for prisoners
For the chief of police, his work is a religious duty. As a devout Christian and a member of the free Church of the sieve Tags ducks-Adventists is not working Espenido on Sundays. He is a strict vegetarian and never drinks alcohol. His Faith gives him inexhaustible energy and a missionary zeal, which also determines the life in the police station.
Bible hour with the chief of police: Every Morning and evening sermon the free kirchler Espenido the prisoners
With his wife he occupied a small room behind the police station – a precaution against acts of revenge on the part of the scattered members of the Parajinog gear, he says.
Every Morning at five o’clock he gathered the occupants of the police cell in front of the guard. There you sit on plastic chairs opposite the entrance and sing to the religious racket out of a cheap stereo system, to the chief of police is holding a sermon. The prisoners then go back in the cell until Espenido the ceremony in the evening repeated. He is convinced that Faith leads to salvation, and his message of forgiveness seems to arrive.
“Jovie Espenido is a good man,” says Butch Merino, who was once the right Hand of Parajinogs daughter. “I’ll tell you that he is a good man, because he has given us a second Chance in life.” With his tattooed arms and his threatening Occurrence Merino wool acts like a parade of gangsters. He was arrested during the deadly crackdown. After that, he began to cooperate with the police, and helped to make his former accomplices. Now he is under witness protection, in prison. But he is now page on Espenidos’ and supports the chief of police in his crusade against crime.