EDITORIAL - Premeditated

The team that inspects a crime scene and collects material evidence was summoned by phone even before the police raiders had entered the jail and any possible crime might have been committed. A search warrant, which was not needed for searching an inmate in jail, looked like it was secured from a trial court judge to give the kill a legitimate veneer.

Several senators conducting a probe into the death of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa in his jail cell in Leyte said yesterday they saw premeditation in what police described as an armed encounter. Members of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group team that conducted the raid could not say why they didn’t simply inform higher police officials about a purported tip that Espinosa was keeping a gun under his pillow in his cell at the sub-provincial jail in Baybay City. While the CIDG members, now grounded, admitted suspecting jail personnel of coddling Espinosa, they said they didn’t think higher police officials in Leyte and the region were involved.

Regular sweeps are conducted at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, either by law enforcement units or by prison personnel themselves, for drugs, weapons and other contraband. Such sweeps are also routine in other jails and prison facilities. No search warrant is ever required.

Because there was a tip even about the exact hiding place for Espinosa’s supposed gun, how hard was it to have him leave his jail cell and then turn everything upside down in search of one weapon? The search could have been coordinated with higher authorities to ensure that personnel of the sub-provincial jail would not get in the way. Involving higher officials would not have been difficult; Espinosa is high on President Duterte’s list of so-called narco politicians. The slain mayor reportedly implicated several public officials and other personalities in the illegal drug trade. He was a high-value jailbird whose safety should have been a priority for the government.

Now Espinosa is dead, along with a fellow inmate who was said to be his cohort, for reasons that the Senate, the National Bureau of Investigation and police are still trying to establish. Uncovering the whole truth in this case can shed light on the direction being taken in the ongoing vicious war on illegal drugs.