Inhibition of Manila judge from Kerwin’s case sought

Suspected drug trafficker Kerwin Espinosa. INQUIRER.net file photo / Tetch Torres-Tupas

The Manila Regional Trial Court judge handling the case against alleged Visayan drug lord Kerwin Espinosa has been asked by prosecutors to inhibit himself from hearing the case after Espinosa’s former body guard was allowed to recant his testimony in a previous hearing.

In a six-page motion to inhibit received by the court on Feb. 1, Assistant City Prosecutor Christian Tracy Bachiller said Branch 26 Presiding Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. “unduly interfered” with the trial by allowing Jose Antipuesto to take the stand on Jan. 26 even though he was merely a bench witness.

The court would resolve the motion within three to five days, Pampilo said during Friday’s hearing—the first since Espinosa’s legal counsel John Ungab was shot dead in an ambush in Cebu province on Monday.

The hearing was part of the ongoing trial against Espinosa, who is facing charges of illegal drug trading and possession of firearms following a drug raid on their Albuera residence in July last year.

Antipuesto, Espinosa’s former body guard and childhood friend, claimed he had only signed an affidavit dated Aug. 3, 2016, after being forced to do so by Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, then Albuera chief of police, to testify against Espinosa and his father.