Espina: Slain ex-Biliran exec had nasty fight with suspect

It was after a drinking spree last Friday when Eugenio Nierras Corpin was mauled and humiliated at a barbeque plaza in the island-province of Biliran by former governor Danilo Parilla. Days later on Thursday morning, at the pier in Cebu, Corpin was arrested by the police as a suspect in the murder of Parilla. This account of the story of what might have triggered Parilla's murder was disclosed to GMANews.Tv by former senator Gerardo "Gerry" Espina, father of incumbent Biliran Governor Rogelio J. Espina, and a distant relative of Corpin. Gerry Espina had also served as Naval town mayor and was appointed last year by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as a member of a special committee charged with studying amendments to the Constitution. Espina said Corpin came to see him last Saturday, the morning after Corpin had a public tussle with Parilla. "He told me, 'Mayor, something happened to me last night,'" Espina said. By Corpin's account, Espina said Parilla berated and humiliated Corpin, and even ripped the latter's t-shirt, in full view of the patrons of a barbeque plaza in Naval town. Many witnesses "They quarreled after both of them had some drinks," Espina recounted. "There were many witnesses. Parilla kept punching and taunting Corpin but Corpin didn't fight back. Parilla had escorts with him," Espina added. The bruised Corpin purportedly went to a local police detachment to report the incident. Espina said he had verified Corpin's account of what happened that Friday evening with a member of the Biliran fire department, who was one of the witnesses at the barbeque plaza. He acknowledged that Corpin had served as a security guard assigned to ground security of the Biliran capitol but that his son, Governor Espina, had dismissed Corpin two years ago. Asked why this happened, Espina said, "you know, Gene has this behavior when he's had a few drinks... lumalabas ang pagkalalaki (he wants to show he is a man)." Distant relatives Espina said his late mother and Corpin's mother were distant relatives. "He belongs to a landed family. His mother stays in the US, and has doctors and lawyers for siblings." Yet it was only in 1994, when he returned to Biliran to run for public office that Espina said he personally got acquainted with Corpin. Espina said that during his radio program this week, he even made reference to the pitfalls of drinking, as Corpin's tussle with Parilla illustrated, but did not identify the parties involved. "I even advised listeners: Don't drink too much... this was what happened to two persons, someone who had served me, and someone who is a brave man," Espina said. Ignored warning? On Thursday, aboard the passenger ferry MV Cagayan Princess at the Cebu pier, Espina said he learned that Parilla was even "forewarned" by the ship's agent that Corpin would also be on the same trip. The ship agent, Espina added, was likewise a witness at the Friday melee between Parilla and Corpin. Parilla, however, ignored the warning because "he knew a policeman in Cebu," according to Espina. Before sunlight broke, gunfire erupted at Cebu City's Pier 4. The MV Cagayan Princess arrived with Parilla sustaining a gunshot wound to his head from a .45-cal. pistol. The shooting was recorded at about 5 a.m. but Parilla died two hours later at the Chong Hua Hospital. The Cebu police accosted Corpin, who claimed that an unidentified person merely passed him the firearm and that he had nothing to do with the murder. Not first time The tiff with Corpin was not the first time that Parilla, who served as Biliran governor from 1998 to 2004, figured in a fistfight. In 2000, the Sandiganbayan ordered Parilla's arrest on complaints of slight physical injuries and light oral defamation. A local official alleged that Parilla grabbed him inside the provincial capitol, triggering a melee. He suffered wounds to his neck. Corpin, meanwhile, had been tagged in a robbery attempt on a Vietnamese couple last year. The seven suspects in that crime purportedly carted away with about P600,000 and $800 in cash, as well as other valuables. Even Espina gave fair warning to Corpin: "He went to see me Saturday morning... I advised him not to drink too much."-GMANews.TV