A LEYTE court has granted the petition for bail filed by self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and four of his co-accused in the illegal drug trading case filed against them by the police in 2017.
In a resolution dated June 13, Baybay City Regional Trial Court Branch 14 Judge Carlos Arguelles Espinosa, Alfred Batistis, Bryan Anthony Zaldivar, Jose Antipuesto and Marcelo Adorco to post bail, saying the “prosecution failed to prove that the evidence against them is strong.”
“Thus, the constitutional right to bail of the accused should be upheld by this Court,” Arguelles said.
Espinosa and his co-accused were charged with violation of Section 26 (B) in relation to Section 5, Article II of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
The drug case relied on the admissions of Espinosa and his co-accused before the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Senate that they conspired to commit illegal drug trading.
In 2017, Espinosa admitted in a Senate inquiry that he gave drug payoffs to former officials of the PNP and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in exchange for protection of his illegal drugs trade in Eastern Visayas.
But Arguelles, citing the rules on evidence, held that an extrajudicial confession is not enough and must be supported by the corpus delicti-body of the crime.
He said the list of exhibits submitted by state prosecutors handling the case did not include illegal drugs or drug proceeds.
“Sifting and scouring through the tangled web of the prosecution’s evidence, this Court did 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 court said, adding that the prosecution relied mostly on the testimonies of the accused that constituted their extrajudicial confessions, thus, it added, it cannot be treated as independent evidence to constitute part of corpus delicti.
“The prosecution to fortress its evidence also proffered the records of the proceedings in the Senate investigation where Espinosa confessed extrajudicially his participation in the drug trade. His testimony in the Senate hearing is an extrajudicial confession that must be corroborated by corpus delicti and it should be treated in the same manner as his extrajudicial confession executed before law enforcement agencies,” the court added.
The court further held that the admission of Espinosa’s co-accused does not constitute strong evidence of guilt against them if uncorroborated by independent evidence.
Even the prosecution witnesses testified only in their official capacities as they have no personal knowledge of the commission of the crime.
“Their personal knowledge is constricted and confined to the performance of their functions anent to the investigation conducted against Espinosa and his co-accused,” the court explained.
“In this case at bar, the evidence so far presented by the prosecution does not establish conspiracy, and worst, it is corroborated by independent evidence other than the declaration of the alleged co-conspirators. The testimonial evidence of the witnesses is barren and impotent of any indicium of conspiracy among the accused,” it added.
With this, Arguelles granted the bail application and ordered Espinosa and his co-accused to post P700, 000 each for their temporary liberty.
But Espinosa will remain in detention as he still has two pending drug trafficking charges.
Last June 9, Makati RTC Branch 65 cleared Espinosa and Adorco of drug trafficking charges after the prosecution also failed to provide enough evidence against them.
Their co-accused, Peter Lim and Ruel Malindangan, remain at large.
Espinosa, Adorco, Lim and Malindangan were charged of committing conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading on two occasions – the first one on February 16, 2013 involving 30 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, and the second one on June 7, 2015 involving 50 kilos of shabu, both in Makati City.
In 2021, Branch 64 of the Makati RTC also cleared Espinosa of two of four drug trafficking charges due to lack of evidence after Adorco executed an affidavit recanting his claims.
Former President Duterte had alleged Espinosa and his father, former Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa were involved in drug trafficking, particularly in the Visayas region.
The elder Espinosa was killed in a drug raid conducted by the police inside his jail cell on November 5, 2016 after he allegedly resisted and fired at the raiding team.
Last year, the younger Espinosa retracted his allegations linking detained former senator Leila de Lima to the drugs trade, including that he gave the former senator money in Baguio City and delivered P8 million through her then bodyguard Ronnie Dayan, saying he invented stories of their dealings as he was threatened and coerced by police officers.
