(Eagle News) — The hard disk drive of the CCTV cameras inside the Leyte Sub-provincial Jail in Baybay City where Albuera,Leyte Mayor Rolando had been detained, is now missing, including the video recording of the CCTV pointed at the jail cell of the slain mayor, according to the administrator of the Leyte Provincial Jail.
In an interview recorded by Eagle News Service, Atty. Ed Cordeno, administrator of the Leyte Provincial Jail, said he and the jail guards were surprised to find out that the CCTV hard drive is now missing.
This was at around 9 a.m. on Saturday (November 5) shortly after Cordeno arrived at the scene where the members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) had earlier allegedly barged into the jail cells of Mayor Espinosa and another drug suspect Raul Yap.
“That is the problem now, because when I came in and asked our guards, our VCR and the hard disk is no longer there,” Atty Cordeno said in the interview.
He said he had directed the jail guards to look for it.
When asked by reporters, Cordeno also said that there had been no coordination from the CIDG on the serving of the search warrants that the CIDG team allegedly had with them when they came to the Leyte Sub-Provincial Jail at around 4 a.m. Saturday, November 5.
According to the CIDG, Mayor Espinosa and Yap resisted when they tried to serve the search warrants on them.
The search warrant was for violation of Republic Act 10591 or the “Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Act” for Mayor Espinosa, while the search warrant for Yap was for violation of RA 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
The search warrants were issued by regional trial court branch 30 of the 8th Judicial Region in Basey, Samar Judge Tarcelo Sabarre. A gun of an unknown caliber was allegedly recovered from Espinosa, while several sachets of suspected shabu and marijuana were allegedly recovered inside Yap cell.
Espinosa was detained in Jail cell 1 while Yap was inside Jail Cell 7.
– Search warrants presented to jail officials only at 11 a.m. —
Cordeno said that it was also around 11 a.m., then the CIDG presented the search warrants to the Leyte Sub-Provincial Jail. The warrants were in fact only marked received at “1100H” on Saturday, November 5.
But this was already seven hours after the CIDG first went in the sub-provincial Jail at 4 a.m. The provincial jail director said that the search warrants should have been received prior to their entry of the jail cells of Espinosa and Yap.
Provincial Jail Director Cordeno said that they had conducted a surprise inspection called “Oplan Galugad” last Sunday, October 30, of the jail cells and that they found no contraband from the inmates, including Mayor Espinosa and Yap.
A jailguard of the Leyte Sub-provincial Jail in Baybay City interviewed by Eagle News Service said that he and the other jailguards were caught by surprise when police operatives suddenly barged into the jail, and forcibly opened the gates of the jail compound.
— Jailguards allegedly directed to “face the wall” when CIDG went in —
A report from Eagle News Service correspondent Dan Pascua said that a jailguard he interviewed, who requested anonymity, 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 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.
(based on reports and contributed photos and videos from Dan Pascua, Eagle News Service correspondent in Baybay City, Leyte)
