(Eagle News) — Ozamiz City Police Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido said Tuesday he was puzzled over the Department of Justice’s dismissal of drug cases filed by the police last year against Kerwin Espinosa.
Espenido was chief of police of Albuera, Leyte, when Espinosa’s father, Rolando, then the town mayor, was arrested for possession of illegal drugs and illegal possession of fire arms in August 2016.
Expressing dismay, the police official said that the Philippine National Police (PNP) might not have submitted transcripts of Espinosa’s testimonies during a Senate hearing where he admitted that he was a drug trafficker.
“Yon ang totoo…kung matandaan natin he (Espinosa) admitted…that he is drug lord noh, sa Senate,” Espenido said in a radio interview.
Espenido was also bewildered about why the DOJ dismissed the cases, noting that it was police protocol to gather strong evidence before filing these.
“Yong nangyari din, depende kasi iyon sa leading agency na nagfile ng kaso kung gaano talaga ka, yong probable cause ba, before filing it to the prosecution office. So Yong prosecutors office naman na nagdismiss ah, siguro… talagang masasabi natin na may basis ‘yan na magdismiss ng kaso sa level pa lang niya sa prosecution,” he said.
Justice prosecutors junked the drug charges filed against Espinosa and several others by the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group due to “dearth of evidence.”
Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan approved the resolution, which was made available to the media on Monday, March 12.