Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.
A day before Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. was killed, a former policeman who served as a security aide and alleged drug protector of the mayor’s son Kerwin was also slain by policemen.
The ex-cop, P02 Renato Mekitpekit, 37, who was accused of providing protection to suspected drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, was killed reportedly in a shootout with policemen on Friday in Calbayog City, Samar.
Mekitpekit allegedly put up a fight when a team of policemen came to serve a search warrant at about 5 p.m. at his house in Barangay Dagum, Calbayog City, according to Chief Insp. Angelo Pueblos, head of the Provincial Intelligence Branch of the Samar Provincial Police Office.
The killing of Mekitpekit was the third of four deaths involving police operations that had to do with Kerwin’s drug operation, the last of which was the slaying of Mayor Espinosa on Nov. 5.
Similarities
Aside from Mekitpekit and Mayor Espinosa, two other alleged big-time drug personalities in Kerwin’s gang were also killed, both in similar manner as that of the mayor: while inside their respective jail facilities and also while being served “search warrants.”
The first killing involved Edgar Allan Alvarez alias “Egay,” an alleged big-time drug lord who was killed last Aug. 11 while being served a search warrant inside the Leyte Regional Penitentiary in Abuyog town by a team from the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Eastern Visayas (CIDG-8) led by Supt. Marvin Marcos.
The same CIDG unit, also led by Marcos, was involved in the serving of a search warrant that likewise led to the shootout that killed Mayor Espinosa inside the sub-provincial jail in Baybay City, Leyte.
The second death involved Fernando Balagbis, an alleged member of Kerwin’s dreaded drug group who was killed last Oct. 28 also in a shootout with policemen who raided his cell, again inside the Baybay jail.
Balagbis died due to multiple bullet wounds after he supposedly put up a fight when a joint team from the Baybay City police and the Eastern Visayas Regional Anti-Drug Special Operations Task Force of the Police Regional Office (PRO-8) implemented the warrant to search his cell at 2:55 a.m. on Oct. 28, on suspicion that he was selling drugs inside the jail.
AWOL cop
In Mekitpekit’s case, the police said they recovered from the former cop a .45 pistol with magazine, four slugs, one 9mm pistol, and 13 small packs and three large packs of suspected shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride).
Pueblos said a team of policemen from the Calbayog City Police Office went to the house of Mekitpekit in Barangay Dagum to serve the search warrant on suspicion that he was keeping a stash of illegal drugs.
The warrant was issued by Executive Judge Agerico Avila of the Regional Trial Court Branch 29 of Catbalogan City, he said.
Pueblos said Mekitpekit fired the first shots at the policemen who were forced to return fire.
Mekitpekit was among the policemen who were facing administrative complaint at the Regional Internal Affairs Service of the Philippine National Police after Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, Albuera’s police chief, accused them of providing protection to Kerwin, said to be the biggest drug lord in Eastern Visayas.
The policeman, who used to be with the Ormoc City Police Office, served as a bodyguard of Kerwin, who was recently arrested in Abu Dhabi and was expected to be extradited.
His death came a day before Mayor Espinosa was shot dead by CIDG-8 members inside the Baybay jail. Like Mekitpekit, the elder Espinosa allegedly fought it out with the raiding team inside his cell at 3 a.m. on Saturday.
Aside from Espinosa, Mekitpekit was said to be the bagman of another big-time drug dealer, Monasimban Limbona, who was killed by Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, the Albuera police chief, during a raid in 2015.
Mekitpekit went on absence without leave in 2015 after he was charged at the People’s Law Enforcement Board (Pleb) for hitting a driver of a garbage truck.
He never showed up during the Pleb hearings and was ordered discharged from the police service.
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