It is obvious in the current hearing on the killing of Mayor Espinosa inside a jail the police officers involved are using the minimum application of procedural guidelines to defend their position that the operation was conducted in a legal manner.
The statement above is extracted from the Facebook post of journalist Ira Panganiban in summarizing the many inconsistencies discovered during the November 10 senate investigation on the death of Mayor Roland Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte.
GMA News reporter Jun Veneracion will give us a run down of at least 11 inconsistencies of the CIDG narrative in regard to the circumstances surrounding the death of Mayor Roland Espinosa.
- Jail guards and police on duty were told by CIDG operatives to face the wall while they were serving the search warrant to the late Mayor Espinosa and Raul Yap.
“You want to hide something. Pwede naman nakaharap ah. Nakatayo lang, nanonood lang sila. Eh di kailangan pa’face the wall.'” To which Senior Inspector Laraga replied: “Delikado rin po kasi, halimbawa po nakaharap sila, kung halimbawa naman lang po eh, andun pa din po ang mga baril nila.”
Gen. Magalong said, “this is SOP for all criminalies but not for friendlies.”
- The CIDG operatives read the search warrant to Mayor Espinosa but it happened when he was already killed.
- The supervising officer Supt. Santi Noel Matira called SOCO at 3:49 AM.
According to Senator Lacson, this is like calling the funeral home even before the armed encounter.
- The inclusion of Supt. Matira and Chief Supt. Marvin Marcos in the CIDG operation was inappropriate.
Sen. Lacson revealed that Supt. Matira was in the payroll of Kerwin Espinosa based on the mobile phone records of the latter. This was confirmed by the P/Chief Supt. Roel Obusan, Chief PNP-CIDG. Chief Supt. Marcos admitted that the Lalaine Jimenea, a local journalist tagged by the late Mayor Espinosa as one of their protectors, is a relative.
- Lack of coordination with the CIDG-8 and provincial warden.
The provincial warden admitted he was not informed ahead if at all when the operation occurred.
PNP-CIDG Chief P/Chief Supt. Noel Obusan denied knowledge of the CIDG operation, “Walang clearance sa amin yan.”
6. Missing CCTV and hard drive.
Based on the records, the CCTV is under repair.
According to Homobono Bardillon, Leyte Provincial jail warden, the CCTV was still functioning properly prior to the CIDG takeover of the Baybay Sub-Provincial Jail.
“I have evidence na gumagana talaga CCTV namin. Meron hard drive yun pero nung umano, after ng raid nila, wala na doon; from 3 AM until 11 AM, yung CIDG po ang may control sa jails namin.”
- Serving a search warrant in a government-controlled facility is not in the manual.
According to General Magalong, the only time that they applied for a search warrant was the raid in a CIDG facility in Central Luzon for suspected involvement of CIDG operatives in the illegal drug trade.
8.Wrong prison cell number.
It was discovered that that subject of the second search warrant was applied for prison cell no. 2 but when the CIDG operatives realized that Raul Yap was in cell no. 7, they proceeded as planned.
- The subject of the search warrant is ,45 caliber pistol for Mayor Espinosa, illegal drugs for Raul Yap.
It was discovered that the firearm recovered from the late Mayor Espinosa was a super 38 caliber; .45 caliber was recovered from Raul Yap.
Major Laraga, team leader of the Baybay Jail operation, explained that the super .38 caliber pistol have a striking resemblance with the made in USA 1911 ,45 caliber pistol.
Due to the glaring mistakes, Senator Lacson asked Major Laraga if they did not make any mistakes in the ‘planting of the evidence’ to which Major Laraga replied, “No sir.”
- The different version of the photos taken from the crime scene showing Mayor Espinosa with and without a gun caught the attention of the senators.
One of the CIDG operatives explained that the picture showing Mayor Espinosa with a gun was taken before it was processed by SOCO. The second photo shows after SOCO processed the crime scene. He said the ‘choke mark’ seen in the wrist of Mayor Espinosa is a SOCO mark processing.
- According to the autopsy report, the trajectory of the bullet is upward.
This means, Mayor Espinosa was shot either in the lying position or standing higher than the shooter.
Video courtesy of GMA News
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