Kerwin Espinosa says he was forced, threatened by police
SELF-CONFESSED drug lord Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa yesterday recanted his allegation that detained Sen. Leila de Lima was involved in the illegal drugs trade when she headed the Department of Justice (DOJ), saying he was forced to “invent stories for fear of his life and of his family.”
Espinosa’s recantation was contained in a four-page counter-affidavit which his defense lawyer Raymund Palad said was signed at the National Bilibid Prisons in Bicutan and was supposedly confirmed under oath during a 1 p.m. Zoom hearing with the DOJ on Thursday.
The affidavit stated: “Any and all his statements given during the Senate hearings, or in the form of sworn written affidavits, against Senator Leila de Lima are not true. He has no dealings with Sen. De Lima and has not given her any money at any given time.”
The affidavit also said: “Any statement he made against the Senator are false and was the result only of pressure, coercion, intimidation and serious threats to his life and family members from the police who instructed him to implicate the senator into the illegal drug trade. For this, the undersigned apologizes to Sen. De Lima.”
Espinosa was among the witnesses that the government presented against De Lima in a Senate hearing to pin her down on illegal drugs charges. He also testified that he gave money to the senator in Baguio city to help fund her senatorial campaign in 2016.
He was apprehended in Abu Dhabi several weeks after he went into hiding.
Palad said Espinosa was “told to cooperate or else he and some members of his family will suffer the same fate as his father.”
Kerwin’s father, former Albuera, Leyte town mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. was killed by policemen on November 5, 2016 while inside his detention cell. The police were out to serve a search warrant on the former local executive’s detention area amid reports that he was keeping a firearm in his cell.
The killing took place just 18 days prior to the younger Espinosa’s appearance before the Senate inquiry on illegal drugs trade.
Palad said his client basically said that his statements implicating De Lima in the narcotics trade were not true.
“Basically binabawi niya whatever statements na sinabi niya kay Senator De Lima which implicated the senator sa illegal drugs trade (Basically, he recanted whatever statements he said against Senator De Lima which implicated the senator in the illegal drugs trade),” Palad said.
LIES
“We have always believed that no matter the lies perpetrated by coerced witnesses, in the end, the truth will still come out. Espinosa’s affidavit only proves the length the current administration have gone to fabricate testimonies and evidence against Senator De Lima,” said Filibon Tacardon, a legal counsel of the senator.
“We hope that other witnesses will also come out and confess how they were intimidated, coerced, and bribed into making false testimonies against the good senator and if possible, name those who actively participated in coercing them to come up with such ridiculous narratives against the good senator,” Tacardon also said.
Dino de Leon, another legal counsel of De Lima, said their client’s chances of getting acquitted has grown stronger with Espinosa’ recantation.
He reiterated that De Lima was jailed for her strong stance against extrajudicial killings during the first months of the Duterte administration.
“It was just a grand design to politically persecute her… Malakas ang kaso from the start, mahina ang kaso ng prosecution, nasa kanila ang burden of proof… Siya lang ang lumaban sa murderous regime ni Rodrigo Duterte na kaya siya pinarusahan ay upang takutin ang lahat para tumahimik kasi kayang ikulong ang tulad ni Leila de Lima (Her case is strong, while that of the prosecution was weak, they have the burden of proof… She fought the murderous regime of Rodrigo Duterte that’s why she was punished so it can have a chilling effect that even someone like Leila de Lima can be jailed),” De Leon said.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said De Lima should now be set free following Espinosa’s recantation.
“Ngayong binawi na ni Kerwin Espinosa ang lahat ng mga paratang laban kay Senator Leila De Lima, dapat palayain na si Senator Leila — now na! (Now that Kerwin Espinosa has recanted, Sen Leila must be set free now!)” Pangilinan said.
Senatorial candidate Chel Diokno said De Lima was immediately be freed.
“Patunay lang ito na walang laman at gawa-gawa lang ang kaso laban kay Sen. Leila. Malinaw rin na ang mga kasong isinampa ay kapritso lang at paghihiganti. Free Leila now! (This only shows that the charges against her were all fabricated. It is clear the charges filed against her was due to caprices and revenge. Free Leila now!)” Diokno said.
NOT A WITNESS — DOJ
Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento said the DOJ did not use Espinosa as a witness against De Lima in the drug cases filed against the senator before the Muntinlupa city regional trial court.
“Di namin ginamit as witness si Kerwin (We did not use Kerwin as a witness),” Malcontento said.
In the same counter-affidavit, Espinosa denied all the drug-related charges filed against him by the National Bureau of Investigation in connection with his extrajudicial confession in the 2016 Senate hearing detailing his alleged role in the illegal drugs trade.
“I also deny the extrajudicial confession dated 14 December 2016 since the same was not voluntarily executed by the undersigned and the contents thereof were not fully explained to him by a counsel of his own choice. He was also misled by the police into signing the same due to verbal promise of dismissal of cases filed against him which promise turned out to be false,” he said.
Espinosa said he has no personal knowledge in the narrations cited in the Joint Affidavit of Investigation executed by the NBI as to his alleged role in the illegal drugs trade, adding that the NBI “relied solely” on his extrajudicial confession in the Senate hearing.
Likewise, Espinosa faulted the NBI for also relying on the statements of Marcelo Adorco, his co-accused in the case and was used by the prosecution as a witness, which the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 64 has dismissed as inadmissible and illegally obtained, leading to the dismissal of the case on December 10, 2021.
Though the Makati RTC dismissed the case, Espinosa remained in detention at the NBI over other pending non-bailable drug charges in other courts.
WITNESS PROTECTION
Espinosa said he was no longer under the government’s Witness Protection Program.
“Undersigned is no longer a witness for the prosecution. He was already removed from the
Witness Protection Program, and they cannot use his alleged confession before the Senate, or any written documents, to prove his guilt and those of other persons he may have implicated. The complainant must rely on the strength of its own evidence and not on the basis of Espinosa’s alleged confession,” he said in the counter-affidavit.
Espinosa was removed from the WPP after he allegedly attempted to escape from his NBI detention center in January this year. He had denied the allegation.
The DOJ had also said that he committed numerous violations while under NBI detention such as “harassment of other inmates, smuggling activities, drinking liquor, extorting money from other inmates in exchange that the latter will not be committed to another detention facility, violation of the curfew hours, roaming around the cells of other inmates and communicating with other inmates on cases involving illegal drugs.”
The DOJ said he was also caught in possession of “prohibited items such as mobile phones and bladed weapons.”
The termination of his WPP coverage also carried the accessory coverage of his wife and dependents.
OTHER RECANTATIONS
Espinosa was not the first government witness to recant allegations against De Lima.
In 2020, Vicente Sy, who is detained at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa city on drug charges, told the Muntinlupa RTC that he never met nor gave money to the senator, contradicting his earlier claim that he had contributed P500,000 to her senatorial campaign.
Sy was among the high-profile detainees at the national penitentiary who testified against De Lima in the three drug cases filed by the DOJ.
The Bureau of Corrections said Sy died due to cardiac arrest on July 29, 2021.
Sy is the second witness against De Lima to die during the pandemic, the first being Jaybee Sebastian, who died July last year after he contracted the COVID-19 virus. — With Raymond Africa
