(Eagle News) — Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa, who had earlier surrendered to the police for fear for his life, was killed early Saturday morning (November 5) inside his cell at the Baybay City Provincial Jail, in an alleged shootout with police operatives.
Mayor Espinosa was killed, along with drug suspect, Raul Yap, when policemen were about to serve a search warrant on the mayor for violation of Republic Act No. 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
The Philippine National Police immediately formed a panel that will probe the killing of the two inside the Leyte Sub Provincial Jail.
A spot report that reached PNP headquarters in Camp Crame in Quezon City said that the incident happened at around 4 a.m. when operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Eastern Visayas led by Chief Inspector Leo Laraga had an alleged shootout while serving the search warrants to the detainees inside their jail cell.
The report claimed that Mayor Espinosa and Yap resisted the search, and that a brief shootout followed. It did not give any specifics on how it happened. The two detainees succumbed to gunshot wounds.
The serving of the search warrants happened inside the jail cell located in Barangay (village) Hipusngo, Baybay City. This jail is administered and managed by the provincial government of Leyte.
–Jailguards directed to “face the wall” –
But a report from Eagle News Service correspondent Dan Pascua said that a jailguard he interviewed in the Leyte Sub-provincial jail recalled that the members of the CIDG forcibly opened the gate of the compound and ordered the jailguards then manning their posts to face the wall as the police operatives proceeded to the jail cells 1 and 7 where Mayor Espinosa and Yap had been separately detained. The jailguard, who refused to be identified said, they then heard gunshots. They later learned that the two detainees had been killed.
“Bandang alas 4:00 ng madaling araw kanina ay nasorpresa ang mga jailguard ng Baybay City Sub-provincial Jail sa pagdating ng mga tauhan ng CIDG Region 8. Ayon sa ating nakapanayam na jailguard na ayaw ipabanggit ang kaniyang pangalan na sapilitan diumanong binuksang ang gate ng compound ng nasabing piitan at sila’y pinatalikod paharap sa bakod at agad diumanong nagtuloy ang mga taga-CIDG sa selda 1 at 7 na kung saan nakakulong sina Mayor Espinosa at Raul Yap na kapwa mga residente ng bayan ng Albuera, Leyte at mamaya-maya ay nakarinig na sila ng mga putok na naging sanhi ng agarang pagkamatay ng dalawa,” Eagle News Service correspondent Pascua reported.
It should be recalled that Espinosa, on August 2, travelled from Leyte to Camp Crame to surrender to PNP chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, saying he feared for his life. He then volunteered information about the drug activities of his son, Kerwin, who was then still at large. He said his son got his supply of illegal drugs from detained drug lord Peter Co and from a local prison in the town of Abuyog in Leyte. He also named several police officers, members of Congress—including a senator—as being in cahoots with his son Kerwin in his illegal drugs business.
On August 16, Espinosa returned to his hometown in Leyte closely monitored by police. On October 5, he was arrested for illegal possession of drugs and firearms and was brought to the Leyte Sub-Provincial Jail in Baybay City.
He was then already expecting that his application to be part of the government’s witness protection program would be approved.
The charge against him stemmed from the 11.4 kilos of illegal drugs and firearms that were allegedly found in his home during a raid in August.
The PNP, in a press statement, said that Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejer of the Police Regional Office 8, has already created a panel that “will establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident.”
The panel will also determine if there were lapses on the part of the CIDG in serving the search warrants to the detainees.
It said that the Regional Internal Affairs Service 8 (RIAS8) would also conduct its own investigation.