Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Jail guards and inmates who were in the provincial jail during the police operation that led to the death of Mayor Rolando Espinosa will cooperate with an investigation, police said Tuesday.
The Philippine National Police Regional Internal Service in Eastern Visayas are collecting sworn statements from the witnesses who claim to have seen the incident.
According to Victor Ongkiko, the Regional Internal Service officer-in-charge, the witnesses said they are willing to execute their affidavits.
Related: Albuera Mayor Espinosa, 1 other inmate killed in jail cell shootout
Early Saturday, the Eastern Visayas’ police Crime Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) went to the Baybay City Provincial Jail, where Espinosa was being held, to serve search warrants for him.
However, as the two policemen serving the warrants entered Espinosa’s cell, he and a fellow inmate Raul Yap, were killed in what the CIDG called a “shooutout.”
Espinosa, the mayor of the town of Albuera in Leyte, is one of hundreds of politicians and authorities named by President Rodrigo Duterte as abetting the illegal drug trade. He was arrested on October 5 for illegal drugs and gun possession.
Lawmakers and other police officials raised concerns over the death of Espinosa, citing irregularities in the CIDG operation.
Disarmed by CIDG?
The jail guards on duty that early Saturday said CIDG officials disarmed them and four members of the Leyte Provincial Public Safety Company who were assigned to the jail and its premises.
They said the CIDG personnel asked them to kneel and face the wall outside the jail’s main building.
Ongkiko said he asked the CIDG why they disarmed the guards.
The CIDG told him the guards were disarmed because they were “hostile.”
According to the CIDG’s account of the incident, the jail guards resisted and blocked the operatives who were there to serve search warrants.
The CIDG’s version of events does not align with eyewitness testimony: An inmate said that there was no shootout when Espinosa and Yap were killed.
READ: Witness: No shootout, Albuera Mayor Espinosa murdered
The inmate claimed that the CIDG officials almost simultaneously fired at Espinosa and Yap in their cells.
Espinosa begged the officials not to plant evidence in his cell, according to the inmate.
CCTV footage of the incident remains missing.
During the PNP Internal Affairs Service’s preliminary interviews, CIDG operatives denied their failure to coordinate with the regional police headquarters.
The CIDG said they sent a text message to the regional headquarters to inform them about the operation.
But PNP Eastern Visayas director Chief Superintendent Elmer Beltejar said they received the text at 4:26 a.m., when the CIDG operation was already over.
Beltejar said the standard procedure is for police operations to be coordinated personally with his office.
The PNP Regional Internal Service for Eastern Visayas said they hope to finish their investigation next week.
PNP chief Director General Roland dela Rosa has assured the public that there will be “no whitewash” of the investigation.
CNN Philippines’ Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report.
