SENATOR Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa denied the claims of self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa that he was threatened by the former top cop to implicate former senator Leila de Lima and businessman Peter Lim in the illegal drug trade.
In a radio interview on Saturday, October 12, 2024, Dela Rosa maintained that Espinosa, considering his records, was not a credible source.
“Why do I need to force him to implicate De Lima when PNP (Philippine National Police) was not a party in the case build-up and the filing of drug cases against De Lima? It was entirely done by the DOJ (Department of Justice). Anong pakialam ko kay De Lima (What do I have to do with De Lima)?” he said.
During the House of Representatives’ quad committee investigation on the possible link between the proliferation of illegal operations of Pogos, illegal drug trade, anomalous land acquisitions, and extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday, October 11, 2024, Espinosa said Dela Rosa discussed the matter to him after he was extradited from Abu Dhabi in November 2016.
He said if he will not heed to Dela Rosa’s order, he will suffer the same fate as his father, the late Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa, who was killed during a police operation inside a prison in Baybay town.
But Dela Rosa said it was Espinosa who told him about Lim and former police official Vicente Loot’s drug dealings.
Loot and Dela Rosa were both graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).
“I had no motive to implicate them (especially) General Loot, who is a PMAyer,” he said.
Loot, then Daanbantayan, Cebu mayor, was among the narco-politicians named by Duterte.
Dela Rosa said Espinosa’s claims should not be considered “gospel truth.” He said he only asked Espinosa if Police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido received money from him.
“No. In the first place, he is a drug lord. Granting na-dismiss' ‘yung kaso niya, still, he remains to be a drug lord,” he said.
“Public knowledge naman sa Albuera na drug lord siya at 'yung tatay niya mismo umamin na matigas daw [ang] ulo ni Kerwin na gusto niya na huminto na sila sa drug business pero si Kerwin ayaw sumunod sa kanya,” he added.
(It is public knowledge in Albuera that he is a drug lord and his father himself admitted that Kerwin was stubborn and that he wanted them to stop the drug business but Kerwin did not want to follow him.)
Espinosa was one of the government’s witnesses against De Lima, who was detained at the PNP custodial center in Camp Crame over drug charges from 2017 to March 2024.
In several Senate investigations in 2016, Espinosa linked De Lima to the illegal drugs trade inside the National Bilibid Prison (NBP) and in accepting millions worth of drug money from him to fund her senatorial race during her stint as the secretary of justice.
In April 2022, Espinosa recanted his statements against De Lima, saying it was purely lies after he was “coerced, pressured, intimidated and seriously threatened by the police,” which gave him no option but to invent stories and cooperate “or else he and some members of his family will suffer the same fate as his father.”
De Lima was among the lawmakers who launched an inquiry against the administration’s bloody crackdown against illegal drugs.
All the drug cases against her have already been dismissed. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)