Kerwin Espinosa asks DOJ to junk drug raps

MANILA, Philippines — Detained drug lord Kerwin Espinosa has insisted on his denial of the drug charges filed against him by Philippine National Police (PNP).

In a nine-page answer filed last week, Espinosa asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to dismiss the complaint for  sale, administration, dispensation, trading, delivery and transportation of illegal drugs under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act for lack of probable cause.

He said the PNP has no evidence to prove the charges against him, particularly the supposed illegal drugs that he sold to another respondent, Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim.

“Since the government could not prove that I had shabu in my possession, what penalty could be imposed on me?” Espinosa argued.

This was the same defense he submitted to the panel of DOJ prosecutors who dismissed the charges against him and Lim when Vitaliano Aguirre II was still justice secretary.

Espinosa belied the new evidence presented by the PNP, including the 37 checks he supposedly issued to women allegedly protecting him and his drug business.

“Nobody would issue checks for an illegal transaction. Everything would be in cash to avoid a paper trail,” he said.

Espinosa also refuted the transcripts of the hearings by the Senate and House of Representatives submitted by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to the DOJ, where he admitted being a drug operator in the Visayas.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde, however, insisted they have enough evidence against Espinosa.

“It is up to the appreciation of the DOJ prosecutors,” Albayalde told reporters.

Lim failed to appear at the hearing last week.

The DOJ panel chaired by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera ordered Lim to submit his answer to the complaint during the next hearing on May 30.

Aside from Espinosa and Lim, other respondents are convicted drug lord Peter Co, alleged drug suppliers Lovely Impal, Max Miro, Ruel Malindangan, Noel Pepito and 11 others.

Miro and Pepito had been killed in separate incidents.