Custody order against CIDG-8 chief, 17 others temporarily lifted

CIDG Region 8 Director Marvin Marcos during the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs Joint with the Committee on Justice and Human Right probe on killing Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. at the Session Hall of Senate, Pasay City. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Supt. Marvin Marcos, leader of the police unit involved in the killing of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., may leave the confines of Camp Crame as the Philippine National Police’s Internal Affairs Service temporarily lifted the restrictive custody order against him and 17 others.

“Their restrictive custody (order) is lifted to give them a chance to go back to Region 8 to get their papers they need for their counter-affidavits,” Chief Supt. Leo Angelo Leuterio, IAS Deputy Inspector General, said on Friday.

During the Nov. 23 Senate hearing on Espinosa’s death, PNP chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said he would  immediately put Marcos and his subordinates under restrictive custody.

BACKSTORY: Dela Rosa to place cops in Espinosa raid under restrictive custody

This means that aside from being relieved from their posts, they would not be allowed to leave the premises of the police camp while they were being investigated.

Lifting the restrictive custody order, according to Leuterio, will allow Marcos and other officers to prepare their documents in filing their counter-affidavits.

READ: Cops:  Why would we file cases if we wanted Espinosas dead?

But the police official clarified that the relieved members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Region 8 (CIDG-8) and Regional Maritime Unit will not be reinstated to their posts.

“They are still in floating status, they are assigned in the police holding and accounting unit of the PNP located in national headquarters in Camp Crame,” he said. IDL/rga