THE Philippine National Police (PNP) is looking at illegal drugs as the motive in the recent burning of a couple in an upland village in Abuyog, Leyte.
PNP Regional Director Elmer Beltejar said one of the victims had kept the wealth of Edgardo Alvarez, a suspected drug lord who was killed for resisting arrest and fighting back during an anti-drug raid at the Abuyog Penal Colony in August 2016.
The two cadavers, found on January 26, were identified by the police this week as live-in partners Bernardino Remolador, 44, and Jennifer Mahinay Corsiga, 25. Also found in the car was a short firearm of an unknown caliber.
Corsiga is the daughter of Fernando Corsiga, an inmate of Abuyog Penal Colony who was charged with murder.
Police recovered the two badly burnt bodies inside the scorched car on a roadside in Balinsasayao village, Abuyog, Leyte.
The burnt vehicle was a Toyota Avanza 2008 model and owned by Bernardino’s younger brother, Fernando.
On August 11, 2016, Alvarez was killed inside the Abuyog Penal Colony in during the implementation of search warrant by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group led by Superintendent Marvin Marcos.
The search warrant was issued after a report that there were illegal firearms and marijuana in the area where Alvarez was detained.
Marcos is the police official who also led the raid at the Baybay City sub-provincial jail that killed detained Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. in November 2016.
The penal colony in Abuyog was identified as a source of possible illegal drugs for suspected drug kingpin Kerwin Espinosa, the mayor’s son who is now under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation. (PNA)