Witness vs Kerwin Espinosa withdraws testimony

Suspected drug trafficker Kerwin Espinosa is heavily guarded by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation as he attends the preliminary hearing on the drug charges at the Department of Justice. INQUIRER.net file photo / Tetch Torres-Tupas

One of the witnesses testifying against self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa withdrew his testimony during a hearing in Manila Friday.

Espinosa’s close aide and childhood friend Jose Antipuesto said he was only forced to sign his affidavit against Kerwin, whom he knew since their younger years.

“Tinakot lang po ako [I was only threatened],” he said.

Antipuesto was arrested in a buy bust operation in Leyte on August, 2016.

Espinosa, on the other hand, said the trial will prove that the accusations against him are not true.

Last December, former Albuera Police Chief Jovie Espenido admitted that both Albuera’s late Mayor Rolando Espinosa and his son Kerwin were not among those arrested or seen at a drug buy-bust operation conducted in Albuera, Leyte last July 28, 2016.

READ: Espinosa, Espenido face-off at Manila court in drug case trial

The younger Espinosa is facing criminal cases for drug trading and illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

The charges were originally heard by Branch 14 of the Baybay, Leyte RTC but the Supreme Court has ordered its transfer to Metro Manila based on the request of the prosecution and defense camps citing security reasons.

The elder Espinosa was killed along with another inmate in a police raid inside the Baybay sub-provincial jail in November last year. /jpv