By Ade S. Fajardo

Now retired Police Colonel Jovie Espenido testified in Congress that when Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa was in his custody, he executed an affidavit that contained controversial allegations. It identifies police officials who received money from Espinosa’s drug operations.

Jovie Espenido says the logbook containing payout entries is still with the Philippine National Police.

This logbook was supposedly maintained to avoid duplication of payouts. Espenido claims he did not tamper with the logbook and may still be used in evidence.

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Mayor Espinosa was drug-tagged by no less than former President Rodrigo Duterte right at the beginning of his drug war.

Did Espinosa foretell his own death? Did he have reason to fear the police officials whom he retained for his drug trade? Colonel Espenido claims he has videos of Espinosa signing his affidavits.

He quotes Mayor Espinosa as saying that some police generals and other PNP officials even accepted checks as payments. This can be readily checked with the banking system. Espenido suggests an interview with Espinosa’s accountant who is said to be still alive.

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Mayor Espinosa pleaded to be retained in detention in Albuera where Espenido could have secured his person. But he was transferred to the Baybay provincial jail where he was eventually shot to death while being served a search warrant for illegal possession of firearms.

How the mayor could possibly have kept a firearm in his cell continues to befuddle the mind.

Unless they were jail guards, it was not possible for the policemen who applied for the search warrant to have personal knowledge of the pistol that was purportedly kept in the mayor’s cell.

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The police had to present an informant to the judge.

That police informant admittedly did not share the cell with Espinosa. How could he have personally known of the late mayor’s possession of the firearm?

The police have admitted though that the informant was not a detainee in Baybay. He was an outsider. What he had was at best hearsay information that judges hearing the search warrant application could have easily identified as such.

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Dondon Palermo was detained in a cell right beside Mayor Espinosa’s. What he said confirms suspicions: The police raid was not a search at all but a liquidation.

Palermo said three individuals wearing bonnets entered the Baybay jail facility in the early morning of November 5, 2016.

CCTV was turned off, and shots were fired at Espinosa who was then pleading for his life. Palermo noticed one of the assailants no longer in possession of the extra firearms he was carrying, implying planting of evidence.

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If this were a legitimate service of a search warrant the police authorities should have identified themselves and did not wear masks to conceal their faces.

The Supreme Court has apparently ruled that a search warrant may be validly applied for and served in places where there is less expectation of privacy like Espinosa’s detention cell in Baybay.

Is there going to be a reinvestigation and will our judges be more wary of motives behind search warrant applications?/WDJ