ISABELA, Philippines- Miss World Philippines 2015 Hillarie Parungao on Tuesday, April 25, is asking for a re-investigation after she expressed doubts that her father committed suicide inside a police station in Nueva Vizcaya province
Parungao read her family’s official statement seven days after her father, Edmundo II, reportedly grabbed the gun of a police escort and shot himself through his mouth hours after his arrest for alleged possession of illegal drugs.
Parungao said the Solano town police’s version of the story “defies science and commonsense” and is “improbable.”
“An hour after his arrest, he died inside the supposedly safest place in town – inside the Solano Police Station,” Parungao said. “The Solano PNP have clumsy explanation of suicide. He was in handcuffs when he was brought in. He could not possibly grab a gun, cock it, and shoot himself.”
Earlier, Solano town police said Parungao’s father allegedly complained of chest pains, so a certain Police Officer 2 Baccay removed his handcuff.
However, Parungao expressed doubts of this version after crime investigators found no gunpowder burns on his hands.
“What made the police story doubtful is the impression it is giving that only two people are inside the police station, which is highly irregular. There must be someone who put a gun on my father’s mouth and pulled the trigger. Whoever you are, please come out to put an end to this,” Parungao said.
She also said her father volunteered himself to undergo drug rehabilitation and even surrendered to police when Duterte’s war on drugs began.
“He finished the [rehabilitation] program and sacrificed those lost times away from us to get clean and sober. When the President’s program of Tokhang came, he went to Solano police station and surrendered to cooperate with the said program,” she said.
Searched twice
Parungao said police have searched her father for illegal drugs twice, the first time was in a hospital where he was confined for Emphysema.
“On the night of April 9, 2017, five men in civilian clothes who introduced themselves as policemen searched his hospital room and belongings without legal warrant. He was informed by them that someone tipped him to be in possession of illegal drugs,” she said.
The search, however, yielded nothing. After the search, Parungao’s father reportedly stayed in his aunt’s house for fear “that the same might happen in his house.”
The beauty queen said her father was again searched on April 18 in his palay (rice) buying station. This time, he was arrested for allegedly possessing three sachets of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride).
Parungao also said most of the witnesses contradicted the police’s statement that her father was held in a buy-bust operation.
“Many witnesses of the incident revealed that he was only at the sari-sari (mini) store located a feet away from his palay buying station having a snack. This is in contradiction to the arresting officers’ claim that they were able to buy and recover illegal drugs from him,” she said.
Parungao also said her father’s bag containing more P300,000 and his two cellular phones he’s using for his business were nowhere to be found. Abe Almirol and Raymon Dullana/Northernforum.net
