A POLICE officer who played a key role in the bloody war on drugs of former president Rodrigo Duterte yesterday alleged that then PNP chief and now Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa ordered him to liquidate drug personalities but supposedly protected drugs lords like the late Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and his son Kerwin Espinosa.
During the resumption of the hearing of the House quad committee, Police Col. Jovie Espenido also implicated Sen. Bong Go, then a special presidential assistant to Duterte, in the reward system for cops who were able to kill drugs suspects, saying intelligence funds and money from Chinese-run Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) were purportedly “funneled downward” from Go’s level to bankroll the operation.
“From my experience, I can say that the PNP is the biggest crime group in this country. I did my job faithfully, but I could not be promoted because I am always in some derogatory list,” Espenido said in an affidavit which he read before members of the quad comm.
Espenido, who has been on a floating status since April, told the four House committees chaired by Surigao Rep. Robert Ace Barbers that upon Duterte’s assumption to office in 2016, Dela Rosa told him to rid Albuera town of illegal drugs, which he said meant “neutralizing” drug personalities like the Espinosas.
“Ang instruction lang na tulungan mo ako, Jovie, atsaka si President Duterte (The only instruction was, ‘Help me and President Duterte, Jovie) about this war against illegal drugs. ‘So, dapat, galingan mo ha, ikaw ang i-assign ko as chief of police ng Albuera, so dapat mawala na ‘yung mga drugs sa Albuera (So you have to do well, I’ll assign you as chief of police of Albuera so drugs should be eradicated there),” he quoted Dela Rosa as telling him.
Espenido added: “Ang police, isa lang ang word, general word na ibigay. Lahat (ng police), alam na namin ang isang meaning din. Pagsabi na mawala, kasali na ‘yung mamatay (In the police force, only one word, a general word is given. All policemen know what it means. When you say ‘eradicate,’ it includes killing drug suspects).”
He said he was “personally handpicked by (Dela Rosa) after residents of Albuera petitioned for my designation. I was supposedly the only one capable of disbanding the Kerwin Espinosa drug group operating from that area. PNP chief Bato told me these in a phone call, after he introduced himself to me (during a call).”
The police official also recounted that in August that year, Mayor Espinosa surrendered to him because of death threats and held office while in detention at the police station. However, after more or less a month, a commitment order transferred him to the sub-provincial jail in Baybay City, Leyte.
On November 5 that same year, the elder Espinosa was killed in a police operation led by Police Col. Marvin Marcos to enforce a warrant for alleged illegal possession of firearms and drug possession while in jail.
Espenido said Mayor Espinosa had a list of police generals and other PNP officials who received money from their group as indicated in a ledger and copies of cleared checks “that we were able to recover from their accountant, some of whom were even issued checks to prevent duplication.”
While in protective custody, he said Mayor Espinosa submitted affidavits including a ledger that contained the names of PNP officials and personnel who allegedly received money from their drug operations and “these were all documented through a video recording.”
“As such, I have learned that top PNP officials were receiving money from the Espinosas. With this, I have initiated cases against these PNP officials until my relief. Later, I have turned over these logbook, copies of cleared checks and affidavits with PBGen. Franco Simburio, then PNP Provincial Director of Leyte,” he said.
Espenido said the entries in the ledger implicating police officials were regularly made by Kerwin’s accountant Virbeca Diano to avoid duplication of payouts.
“According to Mayor Espinosa and as confirmed by Virbeca Diano, these payouts were being made to allow their unhampered drug operation in Region 8 including some parts of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. I did not allow the deletion of names from the book,” he said.
Espenido said he personally reported to Dela Rosa his accomplishments at his office in Camp Crame but the then PNP chief supposedly told him that Kerwin “had alleged that I was on the take from his group for 20,000 pesos per month.”
“I told him I was ready to resign if there was evidence that I received money from Kerwin as there is no truth as to this,” he said.
“I was eventually cleared by Kerwin who said I was the only one who did not get money from him and his group in one of the Senate Hearings where he was invited as a resource speaker,” he added.
Espenido said the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) handled the cases filed against Kerwin but that they were subsequently dismissed, which prompted him to believe that “Dela Rosa was involved in the dismissal of the cases that l built up against Kerwin Espinosa, including the burying of the cases that I was building against his police protectors or coddlers who have been receiving money from him.”
“I can say this because instead of allowing my unhampered access on Kerwin when he was apprehended in Dubai, he immediately ordered Kerwin’s turnover to AIDG (PNP Anti-Illegal Drug Group) instead of ordering his turnover to my unit which was then investigating the drug cases where Kerwin was involved,” he said.
“In the same vein, I have never heard again of the cases that were supposed to be filed against Kerwin’s protectors, or if they actually have been filed in the first place given that decisive evidence establishing their guilt, that is, the logbook and the copies of the cleared checks in the name of these people are still in the custody of the PNP,” he added.
‘NO COMMENT’
In an interview, Dela Rosa said he would rather not make a comment on Espenido’s allegations since he has yet to read news articles on it. He also said that he was not able to watch the House hearing since he was in a Senate committee hearing at the time.
“Neutralize? Hindi ko pa nababasa. Mahirap mag-comment na hindi ko pa nakikita. Sige lang, tignan ko muna kung ano yung sinabi niya (Neutralize? I have not read it. It’s hard to make a comment on something which I have not yet seen. I’ll just let it be because I still would like to see what he said),” Dela Rosa said.
He likewise denied knowledge of the supposed quota system that he supposedly imposed on policemen when he was still the PNP chief.
“I-neutralize ang drugs? O? Anong masama pala nito kung i-neutralize ang drugs? We have to neutralize the drug problem di ba? Bakit, sinabi ko bang patayin yung tao? Wala naman akong sinabing patayin yung tao (Neutralize the drugs [problem]? So, what’s wrong with that? We have to neutralize the drug problems, isn’t it? Did I tell them to kill the people? I never said anything about killing people),” he said.
He said his order to neutralize the drug problem “by all means” was to do so by all legal means.
Dela Rosa also said he never assigned a police official to a certain post just to kill drug users and pushers in their area of jurisdiction.
“Trabaho mo bilang chief of police na linisin mo ang iyong kapaligiran. Magtrabaho ka para mawala ang problema sa droga (Your job as chief of police is to clean your surroundings. You should work to get rid of the drug problem),” he said.
SET-UP?
Espenido said that instead of being commended for his accomplishments, said he was “sent off to be killed in Ozamiz City in the guise of dismantling the drug operations there.” He said that sometime in December 2016, Dela Rosa informed him that he was being transferred to Ozamiz “because I am a brave officer.”
Espenido quoted Dela Rosa as saying that the “local drug kingpin (Parojinog) was also tough. so it required a tough officer like me to dismantle the Parojinog drug operations by all means necessary.”
“In police language, it included neutralization or elimination of the target. Moments after my phone conversation with Chief Bato, he issued a formal order to cause my transfer to Ozamiz,” he said.
Espenido also pointed out that it was Duterte, himself, who announced in August 2016 that Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog was included in the list of public officials involved in illegal drugs.
In a meeting with Parojinog, Espenido said the mayor denied involvement in any illegal activity. “Mayor Aldong Parojinog even added that he is just being politically persecuted,” he said.
“At this time, it was the goons of Mayor Parojinog who were making drug busts. They were called PNP – ‘Pulis ni Parojinog.’ These were not meaningful busts because they only arrested the buyers but not the sellers. I learned of this because they bring the people they are apprehending to the police station,” he added. “I also discovered that several pushers had decided to import their supply from Marawi. Parojinog’s ‘PNP’ trained their sights only on the pushers who got their supply from Marawi,” he said.
Espenido said many times, Parojinog expressed his desire to surrender but did not. A search warrant was eventually issued for Espenido’s unit and the CIDG to search the premises of the residence and farm of the mayor.
“We enforced them through a simultaneous search around 2:00 a.m. of July 30, 2017, a Sunday. Sixteen (16) people were killed in these police operations, including Mayor Parojinog and his wife,” Espenido said. “Chief Bato and President Duterte arrived shortly thereafter to congratulate our unit for the successful raid. The Parojinogs had been neutralized. We were even awarded a plaque of recognition.”
After which, Espenido said, he was summoned to Camp Crame and was again “subjected to another intrigue: then PMGen. Archie Gamboa told me that I have links to a Malaysian drug trafficking group.”
Espenido claimed he was made a scapegoat for the drug-related extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during the previous administration and that the former President and Dela Rosa were aware of it.
He said he was initially confused about being labeled a drug suspect despite his active involvement in the fight against illegal drugs but Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop, a vice chair of the joint panel, suggested that his inclusion in the drug list may have been a deliberate attempt to undermine his credibility.
“There is one time, Your Honor, Mr. Chair, na nagsabi sa akin na (when someone told me), ‘Jov, it’s games of the general. Isali ka, ‘yung credibility mo sirain para ‘yung credibility mo na nag-file ng complaint sa mga officers at saka ‘yung dinisband mo na mga grupo, hindi na credible ang pagsasalita mo kasi kasali ka pala (You’ll be included in the drug list to destroy your credibility, you, who filed a complaint against officers and the group you disbanded. They’ll make it appear that what you say isn’t credible since you are involved),” he said.
20,000 PER KILL
Espenido also revealed the existence of a quota and reward system for police officers who made drug kills, confirming the claim of Manila Rep Bienvenido Abante that POGO money was also used to bankroll it.
“Even intelligence funds were used in the drug war. POGO money was also used. After these POGOs were able to register with the government, funding was funneled downward from the level of Bong Go,” he said.
“I confirm that there was a quota and reward system in the implementation of the war on drugs during the previous administration. I truly wanted to implement it without causing deaths. When the leadership imposed a quota of 50-100 (drug kills) per day, we only took it to mean that we had to knock on the doors of 50-100 households suspected of drug use or pushing,” Espenido bared.
He said there was a reward of P20,000 per kill and the funding “came from operators of Small-Town Lottery (STL), or jueteng lords who give money to the police regional commanders, provincial commanders, down the line.”
“The group or individuals who make the kill receive the money,” he said. “The STL money is remitted directly to the RD or PD (regional director or provincial director). The same goes for the so-called vigilantes. The flow of money was automatic.”
As for the payment of these rewards, Espenido said there were “bagmen” who delivered the money to high-ranking police officers.
“I personally know some of the bagmen. Many PNCO (non-commissioned officers) who were my classmates were murdered. They were bagmen acting at the beck and call of regional and provincial directors,” Espenido said. “When Duterte became president these RDs and PDs pointed to their own bagmen when asked about police personnel involved in the illegal drug trade. In Cebu, a barangay captain was killed by an ex-army personnel who pretended to be a vigilante. This was established by CCTV.”
CONTEMPT
Also yesterday, the quad comm cited in contempt Supt. Gerardo Padilla, an official of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), who was the warden of the Davao Penal and Prison Farm when three jailed Chinese nationals were killed there in August 2016, for refusing to give direct answers.
The panel ordered Padilla to be detained for 30 days in Bicutan because the House’s own detention facility is already full of persons detained after being cited in contempt, such as Cassandra Li Ong, a central figure in the panel’s ongoing POGO investigation.
Self-confessed hitmen Leopoldo Tan Jr. and fellow hitman Fernando Magdadaro earlier claimed that Duterte allegedly issued kill orders for three convicted Chinese drug lords inside the maximum-security facility of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF) in 2016.
Tan and Magdadaro told the quad comm last Thursda y that back when they were still detained at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in 2016, police officials asked them to kill the three Chinese drug convicts who were also detained in the facility in exchange for P1 million and their freedom.
The three victims – Chu Kin Tung, alias Tony Lim; Li Lan Yan, alias Jackson Li; and Wong Meng Pin, alias Wang Ming Ping – were serving sentences for their involvement in illegal drug activities. Two of them were previously convicted for operating a drug laboratory in Parañaque City.
The two inmates implicated several police officials, including SPO4 Arturo “Art” Narsolis, Lt. Col. Royina Garma and Padilla.
Padilla insisted during the hearing that he was unaware of the order to transfer the Chinese nationals to the same solitary confinement cell where Tan and Magdadaro were placed to carry out the prison hit.
He refused to say who ordered the transfer of the three Chinese inmates but eventually pointed to Corrections Sr. Insp. Nonie Forro, who said he was third-in-line in approving the transfer of prisoners.
Forro eventually admitted that there was an advice from Padilla to transfer the inmates, prompting Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano (PL, Abang Lingkod), one of the quad comm chairmen, to move that the panel cite him in contempt. — With Raymond Africa
