Syndicates could be behind drug killings, says Abella

HALF-STAFF The flag flutters at half-staff in front of the municipal hall of Albuera, Leyte province, after the town’s mayor, Rolando Espinosa, was killed by policemen inside a jail facility in Baybay City. —ROBERT DEJON

The Duterte administration has nothing to gain from the death of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., Malacañang said on Tuesday as it distanced itself from policemen suspected of executing detained drug suspects.

Reacting to criticisms of the police action, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said it was wrong to equate President Duterte’s strong statements against illegal drugs to the killings of Espinosa and other drug personalities in custody.

“The death of Espinosa does not add to the gains of the government nor of the President,” Abella said.

Echoing police claims, he said the killings could have been the handiwork of drug syndicates.

“So it’s not a question of being incited by the words of the President. I think these are actually actions taken by certain parties who are interested in the elimination of those (drug suspects),” Abella said.

Nonetheless, he said such suspicious deaths of arrested drug personalities were “something that really needs to be examined and investigated properly.”

Sen. Panfilo Lacson referred to the killing of Espinosa as a palpable case of extrajudicial killing by the police, but that would mean that it was state-sanctioned, Abella said.

“It really is not. It’s not the best way to describe the situation,” he said.

Espinosa, 54, and his son, Kerwin, were named by the President as the biggest drug lords in Eastern Visayas.

This prompted the mayor to turn himself in to Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa at Camp Crame, where he stayed for several days for fear of his life.

Kerwin, on the other hand, fled abroad, but was recently arrested in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

On Saturday, Espinosa was gunned down by members of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group after he supposedly engaged them in a firefight when they tried to serve two search warrants in his prison cell at Leyte’s subprovincial jail in Baybay City. A fellow inmate, Raul Yap, also was killed.