Espinosa family cries rubout, mayor killed to ‘silence’ him

Rhoda, reported live-in partner of slain Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., is seen here wailing outside the gate of the Baybay Sub-Provincial Jail after learning of the death of her partner last Saturday. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ROBERT DEJON)

The older brother of slain Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. yesterday called on witnesses to come out and shed light on what they believed was a case of a rubout.

Ramon Espinosa, the eldest of seven siblings, said claims that his brother engaged operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG-8) in a shootout inside the sub-provincial jail in Baybay City, Leyte was improbable and unworthy of belief.

“Hinaut pa unta dunay mga testigo nga mopatim-aw. (I hope there are witnesses who will come out),” he told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview.

Ramon believed his brother was intentionally killed to silence him.

On Aug. 2, Mayor Espinosa showed up at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters and surrendered to PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa, beating a 24-hour deadline set by President Rodrigo Duterte for him and his 36-year-old son to surrender or shoot-on-sight orders would be issued against them.

Ramon also pointed out that last Oct. 5, his brother did not resist arrest when a warrant was served by police at his home in Albuera town.

“Ni-surrender naman gani unya mosukol pa diay siya? (He even surrendered; now why would he fight it out),” he said.

Ramon said his brother decided to get a licensed firearm to protect himself after he won as mayor of Albuera in the elections last May; but the gun, according to Ramon, was not in Mayor Espinosa’s possession inside the provincial jail in Baybay City.

Ramon believed that persons who were named as illegal drug protectors in an affidavit earlier executed by Mayor Espinosa ordered the latter’s assassination.

It was also possible, he said, that there were other officials who were afraid that the mayor might later on squeal on them.

Mayor Espinosa’s affidavit had contained 226 names including 19 politicians, four from the judiciary, 38 policemen, 7 from CIDG, one from the Philippine Drug Enforcement, three from the Bureau of Jail

Management and Penology (BJMP), one from the Army and three from the media.

“Ako siyang gipangutana, ‘Kanang imong gipangsuwat diha sa imong affidavit, ikaw gyud nagsuwat?’ Ingon siya, ‘Dili akong naghimo sa akong affidavit. Igo ra ko nga gipapirma. Giandam na tong daan,’ (One time, I asked my brother ‘Did you really make the affidavit?’ And he told me he did not. He said it was prepared by someone else, and he was just asked to affix my signature on it. The affidavit was
ready-made when it was given to him),” Ramon said.

Ramon surmised that some police officials prepared Mayor Espinosa’s affidavit.

Wake and burial

Ramon and his wife Emma traveled from Cebu City to Leyte on Saturday afternoon, hours after the fatal shooting of Mayor Espinosa.

He wanted his brother’s wake to be held in Cebu City, where their family originally hails from, but he still had to confer with his siblings and the mayor’s immediate family.

On Sunday morning, Ramon said Espinosa’s body was subjected to an autopsy conducted by Chief Insp. Benjamin Lara, medico-legal officer of the Regional Crime Laboratory in Central Visayas, at the St. Peter’s Memorial Chapel in Ormoc City.

The body was expected to be brought to the family residence in Sitio Tinago II, Barangay Benolho, Albuera town.

Ramon said they were waiting for their four siblings and their mother to arrive from the United States to discuss burial plans. Only Ramon and younger sister, Janet, have so far arrived in Leyte after
their brother was killed, Saturday dawn.

Ramon said the family also needed to discuss which government agency will be requested by the family to conduct an investigation into their brother’s death.

“Sabutan pa na namo kay karong panahona gibaliwala naman ang tawhanong katungod. Makita nato nga daghan ang gipamatay bisan walay sala. (We still have to talk about that because these days, human rights no longer matter. As you can see, many people are being killed even if they had not committed any infraction),” he said.

Ramon was soundly asleep in their family’s ancestral home in Barangay Hipodromo, Cebu City when he received a call from Mayor Espinosa’s daughter.

He was dumbfounded when he heard that his brother was killed.

“Dili ko katuo. Sakit kaayo para namo ang nahitabo. Niingon ang akong igsoon nga safe siya didto kay dunay mga pulis nga nagbantay niya. Ako siyang giingnan nga ayaw gyud kalimot pag-ampo. Apan karon, nahitabo gyud ang wala namo damha (I can’t believe that my brother is dead. It is just so painful. He told me he was safe inside the jail because policemen were guarding him. I reminded him to always pray. We never expected this to happen),” said the 60-year-old Ramon.

Mayor Espinosa was the fifth of seven siblings from Cebu City. His family moved to Albuera, Leyte sometime in the 1980s to take care of parcels of land owned by their mother.

Kerwin Espinosa

But while Mayor Espinosa’s son, Kerwin, was into the illegal drugs trade, Ramon said, the mayor never had a hand in the trade and even called Kerwin’s attention.

Iya man nang gusto. Sige mig maymay sa bata pa na siya nga dili na maayong negosyoha. Pero niingon siya nga unsa man kuno ang iyang ibuhi sa iyang pamilya. (That’s what he always wanted. We kept on
telling him ever since he was a teenager not to engage in illegal drugs, but he told us how would else could he feed his family),” he said.

Kerwin, who grew up in Barangay Hipodromo, was arrested for selling illegal drugs and detained at the Cebu City Jail in 2008. He was released from detention a year later after the charges against him were dropped for insufficiency of evidence.

Yogi Filemon Ruiz, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7), called on authorities to investigate the mayor’s death.

“I do believe that the Philippine National Police also wanted to know what really happened; to determine whether what happened was a rubout or a legitimate encounter,” he told CDN.

Ruiz said Mayor Espinosa’s death will affect not only the illegal drugs operation in the Eastern Visayas but Central Visayas as well.

“I also expect the same thing to happen in Region 7 because, based on our monitoring, Kerwin also supplied drugs to Central Visayas,” he said.

Lawyer Jonah John Ungab, vice mayor of Ronda town, Cebu, who was among those linked by Mayor Espinosa to Kerwin’s illegal drugs trade welcomed any investigation into the mayor’s death.

“I welcome the conduct of any investigation to find out what really happened to Mayor Espinosa. He was a high-value inmate,” Ungab told CDN over the phone.