THE reinstatement of the head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 8 came as a shock to the Espinosa family.
Supt. Marvin Marcos, chief of the CIDG 8, was previously relieved from his post for his alleged involvement in illegal drugs, but Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa reinstated him.
President Rodrigo Duterte admitted last Friday night that he had ordered Marcos’s reinstatement.
“Why man? Why man nga gi-reinstate siya nga the fact nga nitubag man gud sila sa Senate nga sila gud mismo ana di ba? (Why? Why was he reinstated when the fact is, they admitted in the Senate that they were the ones who did it?),” Emma Espinosa, the wife of Ramon Espinosa Jr., told Sun.Star Cebu in a phone interview.
Worry
Emma referred to the death of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. inside his detention cell in the Leyte sub-provincial jail in Baybay City last Nov. 5. The CIDG has claimed it was a shootout because the mayor supposedly resisted when they tried to serve a warrant on him.
The mayor will be buried in Albuera today rather in Cebu, Emma said, for security reasons.
As for the mayor’s son, self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, they are hoping and praying that he would not suffer the same fate as his father’s.
“Si Mayor naa sa selda gipatay pa man gani. Kana si Kerwin kay mao gud na ilang target, we’re hoping and praying nga dili pud na mahitabo ni Kerwin ang nahitabo sa iyang daddy (The mayor who was inside his cell got killed. As for Kerwin, who is really their target, we’re hoping and praying that it won’t happen to him, too),” she said.
Kerwin’s sisters and brothers have been receiving death threats and are now guarded day and night, Emma said.
“Kaming mga taga Cebu wala gud. Kaning mga anak gud nga mga igsuon ni Kerwin. Maglakaw ang mga bata naa gud na sila’y security (Those of us who are from Cebu, we didn’t get any threat. But the mayor’s sons and daughters, Kerwin’s siblings, got the brunt of it. When they leave the house, they have security with them),” she said.
Order
A man was said to have visited their house after the mayor’s death to threaten one of the sons.
Because they were busy with the mayor’s wake, it was the first time yesterday that the family heard about Marcos’s reinstatement.
In an interview with CNN Philippines, President Duterte admitted that he ordered dela Rosa to reinstate Marcos because he was doing “an investigative job” on him.
“Wala ta kahibawo kung unsa ilang gipaluyo ani pero ako ni gi-question, why? (We don’t know what their motive behind this is, but my question is, why?),” Emma said.
Tomorrow, Emma’s son is scheduled to appear in the Senate to answer questions because he was the one who had signed Kerwin’s papers so that he could stay in Baguio.
Police arrested Mayor Espinosa two months ago for alleged possession of illegal drugs and illegal possession of firearms. Two weeks after his arrest, an Interpol team caught his son Kerwin in Abu Dhabi.
Claim
Kerwin was still detained in the United Arab Emirates at the time of his father’s death while behind bars.
After being flown back to the Philippines, Kerwin has told a Senate panel that a “Colonel Marcos”, through an intermediary, asked him for P3 million before the May elections, in order to support his (Marcos’s) wife’s campaign.
Marcos has denied the allegation, according to a Rappler report last Nov. 23, and pointed out that it was his team that filed the cases that led to Kerwin’s arrest in the United Arab Emirates.
Kerwin has also alleged that several times before the May 2016 elections, Ronnie Dayan contacted him and received funds for the Senate campaign of former justice secretary Leila de Lima. Both de Lima and Dayan, her former driver and bodyguard, have separately confirmed they had an affair.