THE Justice department has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the killing of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa, who was shot dead in his cell at the Baybay provincial jail at dawn Saturday.
Justice Secretary Vitalliano Aguirre II said the NBI investigation avoid any suspicion of a whitewash.
Aguirre said the NBI had to step in because members of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group were involved in the alleged shootout in which Espinosa was killed.
Espinosa, who was tagged by President Rodrigo Duterte as a drug trafficker, earlier surrendered to PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa for fear of his life. He was allowed to go home but was arrested last month on a weapons charge.
His son Kerwin, who is said to be one of the biggest drug lords operating in the Visayas, was arrested in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates last month.
Another inmate identified as Raul Yap was also killed in the reported shootout.
Chief Insp. Leo Laraga, leader of the CIDG team, said they were forced to fire back after Espinosa and Yap fired at them from separate cells.
It was unclear how Espinosa and Yap had guns inside the jail.
Before his death, Mayor Espinosa had executed an affidavit naming the government officials who allegedly protected their drug trade and benefitted from it.
Aguirre considered him as a possible state witness to be covered by witness protection program.
Espinosa reportedly identified Senator Leila de Lima, several congressmen and police officials among those who received drug money for protecting Kerwin’s operations.
The Interior Department, meanwhile, has given the PNP seven days to wrap up its own investigation.
Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno has tapped the PNP-Internal Affairs Service to head up the investigation.
But Sueno said he welcomed the help of the NBI in unraveling the truth about Saturday’s shootout, saying this would dispel the perception of a whitewash.
Espinosa was killed inside his cell at 4 a.m. Saturday after he fired at policemen while attempting to serve a search warrant on him, a police said.
The primary focus of the probe, Sueno said, will be on the circumstances before and during the application of the search warrant against Espinosa.
Sueno explained that the jail where Espinosa was detained is under the direct control and supervision of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, an attached agency of the Interior department and not under the provincial government, contrary to earlier reports.
Edre Olalia of the National Union of People’s Lawyers said it was improper for the policemen to secure a search warrant merely to look for contraband inside the detention cell.
“Totally unnecessary and not legally need …because part of the powers of the custodian and jail regulations is to search for contraband and weapons in their jurisdiction,” Olalia said.
Policemen who entered Espinosa’s cell shortly after the shootout said they found a sachet of shabu and assorted drug paraphernalia and a Super .38 pistol. They said they found a .45 cal. pistol, and a total of 57 sachets of shabu and dried marijuana leaves and assorted drug paraphernalia inside Yap’s cell.
The killing of Espinosa prompted Sueno to ordered the relief of the Baybay Sub-Provincial Jail warden who he failed to identify.
On the other hand, CIDG director Chief Supt. Roel Ubusan sent an investigative team to Leyte early morning Sunday.
Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, said his panel would conduct an investigation into the Espinosa case.
“We will have to conduct a separate investigation on this case because we have wrapped up the previous investigation [on extrajudicial killings] and the committee report is ready for submission,” he said.
Gordon said he talk to Senator Panfilo Lacson, who had wanted to resume the panel’s investigation into the rise in extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration.
Lacson said he considered the Espinosa killing the “biggest challenge to the credibility of the PNP” and said it could affect affect even the other operations involving “drug suspects killed under similarly suspicious circumstances.”
“I can’t understand for the life of me how a prisoner inside a prison cell could even think of fighting back against police officers serving a warrant for his arrest,” Lacson said.
Gordon has earlier expressed alarm over Espinosa’s killing, saying that it was a dagger in the heart of the criminal justice system as it appears that even those who are in the custody of the law are no longer safe.
“How can we encourage suspects to surrender under the law in this situation? It’s a slap on the face of the rule of law and it signals a more desperate system—a ‘take no prisoners’ approach. This creates an atmosphere of intimidation and fear and puts everybody in danger,” he added.
“It is in the public interest to dispel speculations as well as to allay fear among our people. The police must show that [they are] responsible and capable of protecting citizens and delivering justice to them under the rule of law,” he said.
