Slain woman not Kerwin’s wife

CONTRARY to a report, the woman who was gunned down by unknown assailants in Barangay Duljo-Fatima, Cebu City, on Friday has no relationship with suspected drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.

An official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said Annalou Llaguno was not the former wife of Espinosa.

“Annalou is the niece of (the slain drug lord Crisostomo) ‘Tata Negro’ Llaguno. She’s not Kerwin’s wife,” said the intelligence officer who refused to be identified for lack of authority to speak on behalf of the agency.

Annalou, a 30-year-old businesswoman, was shot by unidentified gunmen riding in tandem on a motorcycle in Carlock Street, Barangay Duljo-Fatima, at 2:45 p.m. on Friday.
She suffered a gunshot wound in the head.

Based on the investigation, Annalou was riding a motorcycle with her boyfriend, John Joseph Romarate, on their way to the latter’s apartment in Barangay Pasil when one of the men fired at her.

Romarate rushed Llaguno to the hospital, but she did not make it alive.

The PDEA officer said Espinosa’s wife, a certain Sami, was the reason why the drug personality left the group of Central Visayas’ top drug personality Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz in 2009.

“Kerwin’s wife was taken by Jaguar. And that’s where (sic) the feud between these two persons started,” he said.

Kerwin, he said, left Jaguar’s group and transferred to Eastern Visayas, where he established his own drug group.

Kerwin eventually became Eastern Visayas’ number one drug personality.

“The factionalization between the two groups was caused by a woman, and that woman is not Annalou. She’s not connected to Kerwin. The name of Kerwin’s wife is Sami,” the PDEA officer said.

Police officers in Cebu were still conducting an investigation to determine the reason behind the murder of Annalou and to identify the perpetrators.