Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Thursday, April 1 said it is high-time for Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido—the controversial police chief known for his hard-hitting campaign against illegal drugs—“to come clean and tell all.”
De Lima made the call following reports Espenido and two other police officers surrendered to police last Tuesday in connection with the homicide cases they are facing over a police operation in 2017.
The case stemmed from a complaint filed by a certain Carmelita Manzano whose family members were killed in an alleged shootout with Espenido and his men. The three police officials—Espenido, Executive M/Sgt. Renato Martir Jr. and Cpl. Sandra Louise Bantilan—were released after posting bail.
The opposition senator said it is imperative that Espenido finally reveals the circumstances behind the death of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa in 2016 and Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and his wife in 2017.
Despite being at the forefront of the administration’s brutal war on drugs, De Lima noted Espenido ended up in President Duterte’s so-called narcolist.
“(It’s) time for Espenido to come clean and tell all,” De Lima said in a post on Twitter.
“Who ordered him to execute Mayor Espinosa and the Parojinogs? Who ordered him to lie during a Senate inquiry about my alleged links to Kerwin Espinosa?” she further said.
“Or is he confident that he will be protected or saved from the legal woes he’s now facing? Is he that stupid?!” she pointed out.
De Lima, a former justice secretary and a vocal critic of the President, pointed out that people whom Duterte had used “usually end up dead.”
“Remember, those whom Duterte use, usually end up dead. That is why Matobato and Lascañas had to flee and bare all,” she said.
De Lima is referring to Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed hitman and serial killer who claims to be a former member of the Davao Death Squad or “DDS” –an alleged vigilante group tasked to summarily execute suspected criminals.
Lascañas, on the other hand, was a retired Davao policeman who also testified before the Senate about the death squad under Duterte when the latter was still mayor of Davao City.