SUSPECTED drug lord Kerwin Espinosa has agreed to talk about his illegal-drug operation when he returns from Abu Dhabi next week, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Thursday.
He said Espinosa had offered to submit a sworn statement narrating his operation and identifying his protectors and cohorts in exchange for being placed under the Justice department’s Witness Protection Program.
President Rodrigo Duterte had tagged Espinosa as the drug kingpin in Eastern Visayas.
Aguirre said Espinosa will be fetched by a police team from Abu Dhabi, where he was arrested on Oct. 17. He said the three-man police team leaves on Sunday.
Aguirre said he had received a letter from the Philippine ambassador to UAE saying Espinosa had expressed intention to be placed under the Witness Protection Program.
“He could qualify for the WPP because he appears to be not the most guilty,” Aguirre told reporters.
“Once he arrives, he will be brought to the PNP custodial center before he is turned over with his sworn statement to WPP custody.”
Aguirre said the government needed to be extra careful in securing Espinosa following the killing of his father, Albuera, Leyte, Mayor Roland Espinosa while in detention in the Baybay sub-provincial jail on Nov. 5.
The Justice department has already ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the mayor’s killing during a supposed shootout with policemen serving a search warrant on him.