THE Manila City Regional Trial Court has acquitted self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa from charges related to the recovery of firearms and explosives during a raid in the family’s residential compound in Albuera, Leyte in August 2016.
In its four-page decision, the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 16 said the prosecution failed to prove Espinosa’s guilt on the control and possession over the seized firearms and ammunitions “neither was he in actual nor constructive possession of the same.”
The court ordered Espinosa’s release unless he is being detained over other charges.
The case stemmed from the raid conducted by the police in the compound owned by late Albuera Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. in Barangay Binolho on August 3, 2023 that also resulted in the death of six armed men.
The raid came several days after the older Espinosa surrendered to authorities after he was named by then President Rodrigo Duterte as among the narco-politicians in the country.
The mayor also then admitted the involvement of his son, Kerwin, in the illegal drug operations.
Earlier, the primary witness in the case, Marcelo Adorco, recanted his statements against the younger Espinosa.
He said he served as the driver/bodyguard of the older Espinosa and not Kerwin as he claimed during the series of congressional hearings in relation to the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country.
Adorco also said that the firearms recovered during the raid were owned by the mayor and not Kerwin.
The older Espinosa was killed after allegedly fighting it out with the police during a raid in his detention cell in Baybay sub-provincial jail.
In May 2023, Adorco recanted his statements claiming that he was forced, due to fear for his life, to issue an affidavit implicating Espinosa and other individuals such as detained former senator Leila de Lima in the illegal drug trade.
In June, a Leyte court has granted the petition for bail filed by Kerwin Espinosa in relation to one of his illegal drug cases due to lack of sufficient evidence.
They were allowed to pay P700,000 each for their respective provisional liberty.
“The extrajudicial confession of the accused cannot be considered as strong evidence of guilt against the accused in the absence of corpus delicti. Sifting and scouring through the tangled web of the prosecution evidence, this court does not find any corroboration. There were no eyewitnesses in the commission of the crime that would positively identify Espinosa and his co-accused of having committed the crime charged,” the order stated.
The charges were based on the respondents' confession, admitting their involvement in the illegal drug trade.
A Makati court also dismissed in December 2021 a separate drug case against Espinosa that stemmed from the claims of Adorco.
Espinosa and Adorco were also acquitted by another Makati court over drug cases to which his co-accused were alleged drug lord Peter Lim and Ruel Malindangan who remains at large.
Espinosa still has a pending case for money laundering. (SunStar Philippines)