Albuera police chief retains post

PALO, Leyte, Philippines – Embattled Chief Insp. Jovy Espenido will retain his position as police chief of the town of Albuera.

Eastern Visayas police regional director Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar said he will not relieve Espenido unless there are orders from the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters.

Espenido was earlier mentioned by self-confessed drug kingpin Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr. as among the police officials he was paying off to protect his illegal drug operations in the region.

Kerwin later retracted his statements against Espenido during the Senate inquiry, even praising the police official’s integrity.

“No, I’m not relieving him, no orders yet from our higher headquarters for his relief, we still need him in our campaign, while Kerwin’s accusation linking him as drug protector has no basis anyway, based on our intelligence reports and other investigation,” Beltejar said.

Beltejar also downplayed reports that the regional PNP is in low morale following the allegations of Kerwin linking several of its officials in the illegal drug trade.

“I don’t think that our policemen are in low morale in the region, because we see our performance had been great with the series of arrests made against high value targets in the drug trade,” he said.

Following the controversy over the killing of Albuera mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. last month, Beltejar ordered all police provincial directors in the region not to implement search warrants inside jails.

The same policy is now being implemented by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, he added.