BACOLOD CITY – Police Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido is the new anti-drug czar here after city police chief, Col. Henry Biñas, confirmed to DNX that the former Eastern Visayas cop is heading the Drug Enforcement Unit of the Bacolod City Police Office.
“Supply reduction and neutralization of high-value targets,” those are the two priorities I have for him, Biñas told DNX.
Espenido comes highly suited for the job as he was police chief when successful anti-drug operations were conducted in Ozamiz City on 30 July 2017 that resulted in the deaths of 15 people including then Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and his wife, Susan.
Espenido was also the police chief in Albuera town in Leyte when Mayor Rolando Espinosa was killed inside a detention cell by policemen implementing an arrest warrant eight months prior to the Ozamiz drug raids.
OZAMIZ DRUG SYNDICATE NETWORK STILL SIGNIFICANT
Biñas, while refusing to give details, said Espenido also has deep knowledge about the Ozamiz drug syndicate, the network of which in the city is still “significant.”
Biñas also revealed to DNX that some of the high value targets of the police are newly-released peddlers classified as “Level 1” or street-level ones.
