Bzzzzz: 2 Cebuanos lawyering for Espinosa pa, son

JOHN Ungab and Lanie Villarino from Cebu were all over, at the Senate hearing and in other places where self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa appeared following his return to the country from Dubai where he was arrested as a fugitive.

Ungab, who also serves as vice mayor of Ronda, Cebu if he’s not busy with his lawyering, was earlier listed as “drug protector” of the Espinosas. Villarino was not in the list but she has been hired as lawyer for the Espinosa family of Albuera, Leyte.

Apparently, the police have accepted the two lawyers as counsel for the Espinosas as they were visible doing tasks for the family, including briefings for media after the Albuera mayor, Kerwin’s father, was slain in the Baybay jail. At the Senate hearing, the two were seen standing or seated near Kerwin.

Does that settle their role as lawyers, especially for Ungab who was tagged as drug lord protector?

Police better clarify that. Some lawyers reportedly shun cases of illegal drugs as handling one could earn them the tag of protector of drug dealers.

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Mess in police lists

WITH 5,000 to 10,000 names of alleged drug personalities, including protectors in government offices and doing lawyers’ jobs, how could police and prosecutors do a better job of validating their lists?

So far, they haven’t been efficient in weeding out from the lists those who shouldn’t be there. There’s no clear rule on whom to consider for prosecution and whom to let go, whom to arrest or liquidate (?) and whom to leave alone.

Those named by the president or tagged in affidavits have still to be charged before prosecutors or the courts. It’s a mess, “gubot pa sa lukot,” a police officer quipped.

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‘Advice’ from De Lima

SEN. Leila de Lima insists she merely gave an advice to her former bodyguard/driver/lover Ronnie Dayan to skip the House hearings. It was not an order, de Lima says. Shades of then PNP chief Alan Purisima’s defense when he said he was merely advising then Special Action Force commander Getulio Napeñas.

Purisima was supposed to have been suspended already when he “advised” Napeñas what to do during the Mamasapano operation which resulted in a massacre. Dayan was no longer in de Lima’s employ when the “advice” was given.

[bzzzzz@sunstar.com.ph or paseares@gmail.com]

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