Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The medico-legal officer of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa was shot four times — twice in the chest and twice in the abdominal region.
Police chief inspector Benjamin Lara noted, three of the wounds had an upward bullet trajectory — this means Espinosa was either standing up or lying down when he was shot dead.
During the Senate investigation on Espinosa’s killing on Thursday, Lara said in his testimony:
“In this case your honor, there are two possible positions for the victim and the assailant. One the victim could be in a vertical position, if he was standing and the assailant or the tip of the barrel of the gun was at a point lower than the point of entry of the body of the victim, this would mean that the victim was on an elevated position relative to the assailant. Or it could also be that the assailant was standing and the victim was laying down.”
Senators say there are inconsistencies in the testimonies of the members of the CIDG team who served the search warrant on Espinosa.
The senators scrutinized the timing of events in the policemen’s statements, saying their accounts were questionable.
Also read: CIDG team leader admits shooting Espinosa
SOCO called in before the raid
According to the CIDG presentation, the raiding team called in Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) to inspect the crime scene at 3:49 a.m. The SOCO is the police forensics unit under the PNP Crime Laboratory.
Usually, the SOCO is called in after a crime or a shooting incident has happened, so that its operatives can secure the incident site and gather evidence.
However, in the case of Espinosa’s killing at the Baybay City Provincial Jail in Leyte, where he was under police custody, the SOCO was called in even before the CIDG team could enter the jail premises.
The SOCO was called in at 3:49 a.m. but the CIDG operatives only entered the jail at 4:30 a.m. The shootout supposedly happened after that.
For Senator Panfilo Lacson, who is a former PNP chief, the police has a lot of explaining to do on this matter.
“Bakit nagre-request na kayo ng SOCO kahit hindi pa kayo nakakapasok,” Lacson asked the CIDG personnel present in the inquiry.[Why were you requesting for SOCO while you’re not yet inside?]
“Ina-anticipate ninyo ba na may papatayin kayo?” [Are you anticipating you will kill someone?],” Lacson further asked.
“Para kayong tumatawag ng punerarya, wala pang engkwentro,” he added. [It’s like calling for a hearse, even if there’s no encounter yet.]
Superintendent Santi Noel Matira, who oversaw the operation, said he made the call. But he pointed out he wasn’t aware of the time, and emphasized that he only called SOCO after the firefight that killed Espinosa.
Also read: Lacson: Kerwin Espinosa must live to tell his story
But some Senators are not convinced. Senator Richard Gordon said, the operation points to a bigger problem.
“Talagang bistado yung mga pulis eh, talagang ito ay extra-judicial killing,” Gordon told the media in an interview.
[The police was caught red-handed. This was an extra-judicial killing.]
CCTV footage
In the same report the CIDG submitted to the Senate body, the police said the CCTV was not working at the time Espinosa got killed. Senator Grace Poe wanted further explanation on this.
“Gusto ko lang malaman, bakit yung report nakalagay, November 5 yung report na yung CCTV hindi gumagana. Tama ba yung pagkakaintindi ko? November 5 din yung repair, Nov. 5 din nangyari? Ganun ba yung report ninyo, ganun ba yung sinasabi ninyo,” Sen. Grace Poe asked.
[Translation: I’d like to know, it is indicated in the report that in November 5, the CCTV was not working. Did I understand it correctly? It was scheduled for repair on November 5, and the encounter also happened November 5? Was that your report, is that what you’re saying?]
But Leyte Provincial Jail Warden Homobono Bardillon said the CCTV was working at that time, and the CCTV was repaired and was turned over on October 27.
Bardillon added, they can prove that the CCTV was working at the time-if only the hard drive was not missing.
“Merong hard drive, pero after ng raid nila, wala na doon,” Bardillon said. [There was a hard drive. But after their raid, it was already missing.]
Bardillon added, from 3:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. of November 5, it was CIDG controlling the provincial jail.
CIDG Chief Inspector Leo Laraga, however, said they don’t even know where the CCTV hard drive is placed.
Laraga added, they did not even look for it because it was not the subject of their search.
Poe expressed her doubts about the testimonies of the CIDG personnel at the Senate inquiry.
“It seems that they had planned for this encounter way in advance to go through the trouble of applying for a warrant when in fact the Mayor was already locked up in a government facility,” Poe said in an interview.
Espinosa, had surrendered to PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa in August, after he was included in President Rodrigo Duterte’s list of narco politicians.
In early October, he was taken into police custody and placed in the provincial jail.
CNN Philippines’ Cecille Lardizabal and Rex Remitio contributed to this report.
Also read: CIDG official: Ormoc Mayor Richard Gomez, Leyte officials involved in drugs
