SUSPECTED drug lord Kerwin Espinosa tagged Senator Leila de Lima and a ranking police officer as among the government officials who benefited in the drug trade in the country, Senator Manny Pacquiao said Tuesday.
Espinosa gave De Lima P8 million in drug money in staggered payments, said Pacquiao, who talked with Espinosa, who was taken back to the Philippines after he was arrested in Abu Dhabi following months in hiding.
Pacquiao said Espinosa told him that a certain “Dayan” had called him and introduced himself as a person close to De Lima.
“He {Espinosa] said how can he be sure if he was really a representative of De Lima? In short, he said, he was being asked for a quota for the election. He mentioned several instances and I was shocked when I heard that,” Pacquiao told ABS-CBN.
To verify if De Lima herself knew about the transactions, Espinosa went to Baguio where he met her and told her that he gave the money to her aide.
A photo that has been widely circulated on the internet shows Espinosa and De Lima at Burnham Park in Baguio City.
Pacquiao said aside from De Lima, Espinosa also named Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Eastern Visayas director Marvin Marcos as one of the police officials involved in the drug trade.
“He [Espinosa] said Marcos told him that his wife was running (for election) then he was asked for P3 million. But he told him he can afford only P2.5 million and then gave him P1.5 million as [an] initial [payment],” Pacquiao said.
Pacquiao said the money was handed to Marcos by Espinosa’s father, slain Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa while the young Espinosa stayed in the car to prevent people from seeing him.
The boxer turned senator said he believed Espinosa was telling the truth.
Espinosa, who is is temporarily detained at the Philippine National Police Custodian Center inside Camp Crame in Quezon City, is scheduled to appear at the Senate hearing today for a possible face-off with De Lima, one of the high-ranking government officials allegedly listed in the ledger of his late father linked to the illegal drug trade in Eastern Visayas.
De Lima has denied all allegations against her and said that Kerwin would suffer the same fate that befell his father, who was killed by policemen in his cell at Baybay City Sub Provincial Jail in Leyte.
The National Bureau of Investigation filed drug charges against De Lima earlier over her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison when she was still Justice secretary.
De Lima has dismissed the allegations against her as politically motivated and a personal attack from President Rodrigo Duterte.
Espinosa has supposedly prepared an affidavit that names politicians, including two senators, and other government officials, but the document has not been released pending his appearance at the Senate.
Before his death in a supposed shootout with lawmen inside his jail, Rolando Espinosa Sr. said in a TV interview that a senator, a congressman and police officials were on his list, but refused to name them.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, who heads the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said the younger Espinosa said he wanted to avoid his father’s fate, in a draft affidavit that he e-mailed to the senator.
He said the draft affidavit contained new names of personalities, allegedly involved in illegal drugs.
De Lima on Tuesday denied she personally knew Kerwin Espinosa and said she is ready to face him at the Senate Wesdnesday.
“I’m telling you right now, I don’t know him. I don’t remember meeting him or anyone in his family. I don’t know anyone in the Espinosa family, including his late father,” De Lima told reporters.
She said she will attend the hearing because she is a member of the committee led by its chairman, Lacson.
“This is just a continuation of the inquiry. I was present and I participated during the first hearing, and I will be present again at tomorrow’s hearing,” De Lima said.
De Lima also denied Pacquiao’s latest revelation that she accepted P8 million in drug money.
“What did I tell you? That’s a no brainer. It’s expected that he will point to me just like those who became witnesses in the House,” she said of the younger Espinosa.