Who’s the ‘influential person’ who asked Duterte to reinstate Marcos?

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 PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Is Supt.  Edilberto Leonardo the “missing link” between President Duterte and the controversial Supt. Marvin Marcos?

Inquirer sources from the Senate and the House of Representatives have tagged Leonardo, the head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Region 11 (Davao Region) based in Davao City, as the one who asked Mr. Duterte to intervene in the case of Marcos.

Director General Ronald dela Rosa, the Philippine National Police chief, relieved Marcos, after the police official  was named by confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa as one of his protectors in a briefing with police who arrested him in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 17.

Marcos promptly returned to CIDG Region 8 (Eastern Visayas). The next time he was in the news, he was part of the CIDG raiding team that killed Espinosa’s father, Albuera, Leyte, Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.

CIDG 8 claimed the mayor was killed in a shootout with police, but the National Bureau of Investigation later determined the mayor was killed in

a “rubout.”

‘Influential person’

The sources said Leonardo was the “influential person” who advised President Duterte to stop Dela Rosa from ordering the relief of Marcos.

The sources described Leonardo as the most trusted man in Mr. Duterte’s inner circle of Davao cronies.

They said Leonardo had Mr. Duterte’s ear and was one of the handful of people who could call the President directly.

Leonardo could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

The sources said the killing of Espinosa was apparently part of efforts by corrupt police to eliminate people who could point to them as protectors of the illegal drug trade.

They said that the corrupt policemen’s operations not only allow them to avoid exposure, but also enable them to get the P2-million bounty—for every high-profile drug suspect they kill—from Mr. Duterte.

‘Higher’ than PNP chief

Dela Rosa had originally described the person who intervened for Marcos as “higher” than he and was his “compadre.”

On Nov. 29, Dela Rosa stoutly denied that it was President Duterte who intervened for Marcos.

On Dec. 1, Sen. Lelia de Lima claimed that Dela Rosa was referring to special presidential assistant Christopher “Bong” Go, but both the PNP chief and Go denied the senator’s claim.

But Mr. Duterte surprised reporters when he admitted to them on Dec. 4 that it was he who called Dela Rosa, through Go, to hold Marcos’ relief so that authorities could tail him and lead them to his illegal drug connections.

Leonardo’s name cropped up during the Dec. 5 hearing called by the Senate committees on public order and dangerous drugs, and justice and human rights.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV asked Marcos if he knew Leonardo. Marcos confirmed that Leonardo was his classmate at the Philippine National Police Academy.

“We didn’t graduate in the same year because his status was ‘pending’ so he didn’t graduate in 1996,” Marcos said.

Trillanes said Leonardo was  the “point person behind this operation” but he did not elaborate.

“We will go there later as we are gathering more information,” Trillanes said.

The sources said the modus operandi in the killing of Mayor Espinosa was chillingly similar to the killing of an alleged drug lord inside a Leyte prison in August.

Practically the same team

An Inquirer source said practically the same CIDG team stormed into the Abuyog penal colony to execute a search warrant for Edgar Allen Alvarez, a native of Laguna who was transferred from New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa in 2014 after the Department of Justice discovered that he was living in luxury in the national penitentiary.

A member of the raiding team shot Alvarez several times after the convicted drug lord allegedly lobbed a grenade at the police. The grenade did not explode.

The sources said Marcos served the search warrant while  Supt. Noel Matira and PO3 Norman Tiu Abellanosa were the deponent and subscriber, respectively, in the police report on the killing of Alvarez.

In the case of Mayor Espinosa, it was CIDG team led by Chief Insp. Leo Laraga who served the search warrant while Matira and Abellonosa made the report on the incident, which stated that the mayor shot it out with the policemen.

All of the police officers were named in the charge sheet of the NBI.

Trillanes said he believed Dela Rosa was not part of

the Leonardo-Marcos CIDG connection.

“I feel for General Dela Rosa because there are [senior superintendents] here [who] are operating without the knowledge or without the knowledge of the PNP leadership, the CIDG leadership,” Trillanes said during the hearing.