THE Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking at the possible transfer of detained self-confessed drug dealer Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa to a more secured facility following his foiled escape attempt.
“We believe that Kerwin Espinosa should be transferred to a more secure detention facility in view of the numerous cases that he is currently facing,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a message to reporters on Tuesday, January 18, 2022.
He said they are already in coordination with the court and will recommend Espinosa’s transfer to a facility controlled by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) where “unbailed individuals awaiting completion of their trial are detained.”
“The courts will determine the appropriate BJMP facility, but we’ll recommend the most secure one. The same arrangement will be recommended for the other detainees who attempted to escape,” he added.
National Bureau of Investigation officer-in-charge Director Eric Distor earlier said they discovered Espinosa’s plan, along with two other detainees, to escape their facility through a hole from an exhaust fan on January 13.
In a television report, Espinosa denied having plans to escape, saying the detention cell where the hole was found was not his but that of the two other inmates.
Espinosa is facing charges for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2012.
His father, late Albuera Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Jr., who was on President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug list, implicated him in the illegal drug trade.
He was arrested in Abu Dhabi where he tried to hide after Duterte named his father as a narco-politician.
In December, the Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 64 dismissed one of Espinosa’s charges in relation to a 2013 botched illegal drugs transaction involving 20 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) in a parking lot of a mall in Makati City.
Espinosa has three co-accused in the said dismissed case. They include Wu Tuan Yuan, also known as Peter Co, a convicted drug lord detained at the New Bilibid Prison.
The case was dropped over the prosecution’s failure to “adduce evidence to overturn the presumption of innocence enjoyed by the herein accused.”
The court also granted the demurrers to evidence of co-accused Lovely A. Impal and witness Marcelo L. Adorco due to lack of evidence. (SunStar Philippines)