SENATE investigators on Thursday zeroed in on gaps in the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s (CIDG) official version of the November 5 killing of former Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera, Leyte, in a provincial jail, with several senators saying these serious gaps indicate “premeditation” hinting of a rubout.
“There are a lot of inconsistencies with the testimonies of the police officers,” said Sen Grace Poe. “It seems that they had planned for this encounter way in advance to go through the trouble of applying for a warrant when in fact the mayor was already locked up in a government facility.”
At the first hearing called by the Senate, the lawmakers seized on the “litany of gaps” in at least three areas that even neophyte Sen. Emmanuel D. Pacquiao rejected.
These prompted the senators’ questions on the timeline indicating that the CIDG had called in Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco team) even before entering Espinosa’s cell, a move that the investigation panel chairman, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson, described as “calling a funeral parlor even before someone has died.”
Second, senators also cited the apparent switch in the guns that were the subject of a court-issued search warrant supposedly in possession of Espinosa and another inmate, Raul Yap, who was also killed by the CIDG supposedly for shooting at the police raiders.
Senators, moreover, were piqued on learning that the police raiders searched the wrong cell of Yap, indicated in the search warrant as Cell 2, when, in fact, he was in Cell 7, which the CIDG claimed they searched on learning Yap was transferred there.
To this, the senators, including former Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima, said the search warrant could be subject to technicality, because in cases of searches, lawmen are limited to the premises indicated by the court in the search warrant.
At the outset, Pacquiao asked why the CIDG raiders needed to go to court for a search warrant to inspect a government facility, when they could have simply coordinated with jail officials. Pacquiao also wondered why the jail guards were instructed by raiders to face the wall as they searched Espinosa’s cell, to which Chief Insp. Leo Laraga, the chief of the raiding team, replied this was resorted to because the “jail guards refused to cooperate.”
Lacson pointed out that, based on the testimony given to the committee, the raiders called for the Soco team at 3:49 a.m., based on the Soco log book, way before CIDG raiders entered the jail compound at 4:30 a.m.
“It is like calling the funeral parlor even though no one has died yet,” Lacson said.
But Supt. Mervin Matira, who made the call to Soco, tried to cast doubt on the accuracy of the log book, but later acknowledged that per his cell phone, he received a call at 3:59 a.m. that Ormoc Soco had already been alerted.
The senators grilled Matira why he called for a Soco team way before the raiders could even enter the jail facility.
The senators also confronted Matira with information that he was the “Aritam” who was earlier listed in the cellular telephone of Kerwin Espinosa that police recovered in an earlier raid. But Matira insisted he does not know “Aritam.”
Director Benjamin Magalong, deputy National Police chief, said the curious timing of the call to Soco at 3:49 a.m. was one of the things that struck them when they were reviewing the report from Supt. Marvin Marcos, CIDG Region 8 chief.
Meanwhile, the senators also appeared unconvinced by Marcos’s justification of why he, as a very high- ranking officer, had to join such a huge team of raiders, when he already had a team supervisor on the ground.
Marcos, at first, sought to evade Sen. Franklin M. Drilon’s query if he knew that one of his relatives had been listed on Espinos’s affidavit as one of those who receive payola from alleged drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, the mayor’s son.
Twice, Marcos replied to Drilon, “I have no personal knowledge about a relative being linked,” but later acknowledged that he heard rumors that a certain reporter from Ormoc was included in the affidavit. Pressed to name the media person, he named a certain “Lalaine Jimenea.”
That name was earlier reported as a local publisher who is reportedly Marcos’s aunt.
The senators also wondered aloud why the search warrant listed guns illegally in possession of Espinosa and Yap inside the jail, but the actual result showed them supposedly handling different make and caliber of guns. What the search warrant listed as Espinosa’s gun ended up in Yap’s hand, and vice versa.
The senators also noted that the CIDG had searched a cell different from what was listed in the court-issued warrant.
Under the warrant, the CIDG was authorized to search Cell 1 of Espinosa and Cell 2 of Yap. But on the ground, the raiders then proceeded to Cell 7 on learning that Yap had been transferred earlier.
That was where they killed Yap, and subsequently ransacked his cell.
Throughout the hours-long hearing, the senators used the word premeditated to describe the operation, barely disguising suspicion that Espinosa was liquidated to silence him.
Dela Rosa sacks cops in killing
THE National Police chief, Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa, ordered on Thursday the relief of 24 policemen who were involved in the operation that ended in the killings of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and a suspected drug pusher inside a jail in Leyte.
Dela Rosa ordered the force’s Directorate for Personnel and Record Management chief, Director Fernando Mendez Jr., to issue the relief order for 18 members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Region 8 (CIDG-8) and six personnel of the Regional Maritime Unit-8 (RMU-8).
Those who were ordered relieved were Supt. Marvin Wynn Marcos, CIDG-8 chief; his subordinates Supt. Santi Noel Matira, Chief Insp. Leo Laraga, the team leader of the raiding team; Senior Insp. Eric Constantino, Senior Insp. Deogracias Diaz III, Senior Insp. Fritz Blanco, Senior Police Officer 4 Melvin Cayobit, SPO4 Juanito Duarte, SPO2 Alphinor Serrano Jr., SPO1 Benjamin Dacallos, Police Officer 3 Norman Abellanosa, PO3 Johnny Ibañez, PO2 Neil Centino, PO1 Lloyd Ortigueza, PO1 Bhernard Orpilla, PO1 Kristal Gisma, PO1 Jerlan Cabiyaan and PO1 Divine Songalia.
Also relieved from the RMU-8 were Chief Insp. Calixto Canillas Jr., Insp. Lucresito Candilosas, SPO2 Antonio Docil, SPO1 Mark Christian Cadilo, PO2 John Ruel Doculan and PO2 Jaime Bacsal.
Dela Rosa assured there will be no whitewash in the ongoing investigation into the killing of Espinosa and his fellow inmate Raul Yap inside their cells at the Leyte Sub-Provincial Jail in Baybay City over the weekend.
“Let me assure everyone that there will be no whitewash in the investigation; ferry out the truth; and slap sanctions or charges on our personnel who have committed violations,” he said.
Dela Rosa ordered the relieved policemen to be reassigned at the Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit at the National Police general headquarters in Camp General Rafael Crame in Quezon City.
The 24 PNP personnel are currently facing investigations by the Internal Affairs Service and the CIDG.
In addition, their senior officers faced investigation at the Senate on Thursday.
At the same time, dela Rosa vowed that the National Police will cooperate with other agencies now conducting parallel investigations into the case.
The chief of police of Albuera, Leyte, Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, doubted claims that Espinosa, who was in his protective custody prior to his transfer to the Leyte Sub-Provincial Jail last month, shot it out with the police operatives, saying that the mayor was a “fearful” man.
Espenido said that Espinosa was cooperating with authorities in connection with the government’s all-out campaign against illegal drugs.
With Rene Acosta