EDITORIAL - Kerwin sings, again

Supporters of former senator Leila de Lima will be heartened by the public declaration of Kerwin Espinosa that he had wrongly accused her of involvement in the illegal drug trade when she was the secretary of justice. This, however, is already in court records. Considering Espinosa’s constantly shifting statements, and considering that he is seeking elective office in 2025, lawmakers must find corroborating testimony and material evidence before believing his entire story completely.

Facing the joint probe by four committees at the House of Representatives last Friday, Espinosa also claimed Sen. Ronald dela Rosa had made him implicate De Lima, on pain of seeing another one of his relatives being killed by state forces. Espinosa, who is running for mayor of Albuera town in Leyte in 2025, is the son of the town’s former mayor Rolando Espinosa, who was shot dead at the Baybay City provincial jail on Nov. 5, 2016 by police who were supposedly serving a search warrant. The police officers, allegedly acting on a tip that the mayor continued to conduct illegal drug deals from jail, said they gunned down Espinosa in his cell after he opened fire at them.

Kerwin Espinosa was arrested in Abu Dhabi in October 2016. He and his father were tagged by the Duterte administration as major drug traffickers. Following the death of his father, Kerwin told the Senate that he was not a “drug lord” but a drug distributor who paid police a weekly payola.

Reading a detailed affidavit during that testimony, he said he started small in the illegal drug trade in 2004. He later met notorious drug dealers operating mostly in Cebu including Jeffrey Diaz, alias Jaguar, Peter Co and Lovely Adam Impal. Espinosa was caught and jailed in 2005, convicted of drug offenses and sentenced to life in prison in 2008. He met more drug dealers while serving his sentence at the New Bilibid Prison, before he won his appeal and was released in 2009.

In 2018, he disowned his original Senate testimony as he moved for acquittal of the drug charges against him.

Before this, however, he linked De Lima in November 2016 to the illegal drug trade. In his latest testimony, Espinosa said Dela Rosa pressured him to do it. This is a serious accusation against a senator that must be properly validated. Whoever is determined to be lying must face appropriate punishment.