SELF-CONFESSED drug lord Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa told a House hearing Friday that former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa forced him into implicating former senator Leila de Lima as a supplier and protector of drug kingpins.
Testifying before the House Quad Committee, Espinosa said de la Rosa applied the pressure on him after he arrived from Abu Dhabi, where he was arrested for illegal possession of firearms and explosives. De la Rosa was with the PNP team that brought Espinosa home from Abu Dhabi.
Reading from his affidavit, which was written in Filipino, Espinosa said de la Rosa told him to link Peter Lim and de Lima to the illegal drug trade.
Lim is a Cebu businessman who was included in then-president Rodrigo Duterte “narco-list,” which compiles the names of supposed drug lords and local government officials who are in cahoots with them.
Espinosa also said de la Rosa told him to admit that he himself was a major drug trafficker.
He said that while he was preparing his sworn statement, Enrico Rigor, a lawyer from the PNP anti-illegal drugs group, told him to add the names of Peter Co, Lovely Impal, a certain “General Luot” and Ching Veloso.
Espinosa’s father, Rolando Espinosa, was a former mayor of Albuera town in Leyte, who was killed inside the Baybay, Leyte municipal jail by policemen who claimed he was armed with a gun.
The mayor was arrested on drug possession charges at the height of Duterte’s campaign against drugs.
Espinosa said he learned from inmates at the jail his father had begged for his life but was still gunned down along with another detained drug suspect, Raul Yap. Espinosa believes he was included in Duterte’s narco-list because he was not supportive of the president, “Itong narco-list na ito, maraming inosente, maraming malinis na tao na kasali sa narco-list, hindi nga marunong magsigarilyo, nasama sa narco-list. Walang eksaktong validation bago nilagay sa narco-list (There were many innocent individuals who were ‘clean’ who were included in the narco-list. Some of them do not even know how to smoke. There is no reason they should be included in the narco-list),” Espinosa said.
Espinosa appealed to de la Rosa to “not create stories” so that they can pin down their political rivals.
“Sa ating pangulong [Rodrigo Duterte], sana po ivalidate nyo po bawat report na marinig po sa inyong paligid na ganito ganyan…. para walang taong masaktan lalo na tumakbo ka nang mayor. Wag ka nang pasulsol sa nakapaligid sa iyo (To our [former] President [Rodrigo Duterte], you should validate every report that you hear, so that no people will get hurt, especially now that you are running as mayor. You should not believe some people near you),” he added.
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