PNP investigator testifies vs. Kerwin Espinosa in Manila court

Government prosecutors on Friday presented in court a police anti-drug group investigator as their latest witness in the illegal drug trading case against self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa.

Taking the witness stand at the Manila Regional Trial Court's Branch 26 was Police Superintendent Enrico Rigor, a lawyer and the chief of the legal and investigation division of the Philippine National Police's Drug Enforcement Group, whose testimony centered on his investigation of Espinosa in November 2016.

Rigor confirmed the said probe was reduced to a judicial affidavit, which, as he read it in open court, revealed Espinosa identifying his personnel ("tao") who carried out his drug transactions as Jun Pepito, an Albuera, Leyte councilman, and Marcelo Adorco, his former associate and now government witness.

Espinosa is the son of slain Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.

He also read from the document Espinosa's description of how his personnel transacted with Peter Co, a convicted drug lord with whom the confessed drug trader faces conspiracy charges.

Espinosa's statement was that it was his and Co's personnel who talked, met up at the parking area of the Metropolitan Hospital in Binondo, Manila, and transported the shabu by private vehicle to Matnog, Sorsogon, then to Allen, Samar, and finally to Ormoc, Leyte.

This admission was reflected in Espinosa's confession of his drug trading activities before the Senate also in November 2016.

Members of the media were refused a copy of the judicial affidavit.

Espinosa's lawyer, Jesus Obejero Jr., moved to defer his cross-examination of the witness to August 24 because he has not yet read the judicial affidavit as he was not furnished a copy.

He later told reporters that the document's contents has nothing to do with the July 2016 buy-bust operation in Albuera, Leyte, the subject of the government's case against his client before the Manila Regional Trial Court's Branch 26.

Two GMA stringers who witnessed the marking of evidence after the July 2016 buy-bust operation in Albuera, Leyte also testified. During cross-examination, one of them, Roberto Dejon, said he did not hear the arrested individuals name Espinosa when he interviewed them. — MDM, GMA News