PNP chief sets probe of Albuera police chief for ‘drug coddling’
PNP chief Bato dela Rosa turns emotional when asked if the PNP has lost the public’s trust. SCREENGRAB FROM PTV LIVESTREAM
MANILA — Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa said on Wednesday that he wanted to investigate Albuera police chief Jovie Espenido for allegedly protecting drug operators.
Speaking at the Senate hearing into the Nov. 5 police killing of Albuera Mayor Roland Espinosa Sr., in a Leyte jail, Dela Rosa said he “received information that Espenido accepted” drug money.
Dela Rosa also said that police have tracked Lovely Adam Impal, whom Kerwin Espinosa identified as his drug supplier while he was in jail in Cebu and Ormoc.
Impal has been “located” and that she is alive, according to Dela Rosa.
In the case of Senior Supt. Hasher Dolina, whom Espinosa identified as having received P6 million in drug money, De la Rosa said he has been placed on floating status and has been made to face a case.
Police officials also told Sen. Richard Gordon that many of the policemen whom Espinosa named on his payroll have been placed under investigation for involvement in drug trafficking.
Albuera Chief Jovie Espenido during the joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs and the Committee on Justice and Human Rights on the killing of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. at the Session Hall of the Senate, Pasay City, on Nov. 23, 2016. (INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES)
Meanwhile, Gordon and Sen. Panfilo Lacson asked Espinosa why Espenido — a person he said he was not friends with — would call him to connect him with Ronnie Dayan, the former aide and boyfriend of Sen. Leila de Lima.
Espinosa said he did not know why but he added that he checked Espenido’s claim by calling Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz to verify Dayan’s call that De Lima was asking money from him.
Espenido denied he called Espinosa to connect him with Dayan.
Jaguar Diaz was shot dead by police in an alleged shootout last June 17 in Las Piñas City. SFM
