PNP forms body to probe Mayor Espinosa’s killing

Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. is escorted by policemen out of his town’s police station, where he had sought protective custody, following the issuance of two warrants of arrest against him for possession of drugs and unlicensed firearms. —ROBERT DEJON

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Saturday formed a panel that will look into the killings of detained Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and another inmate Raul Yap inside the Leyte Sub Provincial Jail.

In a press statement, the PNP said Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejer of Police Regional Office 8, created the panel that will “establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident.”

It will also determine whether there were lapses on the part of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in serving the search warrants on the detainees, among others. The Regional Internal Affairs Service 8 (RIAS8) will conduct its own investigation.

A spot report reaching the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame said that at 4 a.m. Saturday, CIDG operatives in Eastern Visayas led by Chief Inspector Leo Laraga figured in a firefight with Espinosa and Yap inside the jail located in Barangay (village) Hipusngo, Baybay City.  The jail is administered and managed by the provincial government of Leyte.

READ: Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa killed in ‘firefight’ inside jail

It said Laraga’s team was on a mission to implement a search Warrant for firearms and illegal drugs on the two inmates who resisted when a brief shootout occurred between the raiding team and the detainees. The report did not say whether the two detainees grabbed the guns of the police.

Both Espinosa and Yap succumbed to gunshot wounds as a result of the encounter.