Kerwin still in danger of assassination – De Lima

MANILA, Philippines – While suspected drug lord Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa may have agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for possible immunity, it does not mean he is no longer in danger of assassination, Sen. Leila de Lima warned yesterday.

De Lima said Kerwin, who arrived on Friday from Abu Dhabi under tight security, might suffer the same fate as his father Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., who was killed under suspicious circumstances inside his jail cell last Nov. 5 by policemen serving a search warrant.

“This is my advice to Kerwin: don’t ever think that your ‘cooperation’ will spare you your life. Sooner or later this government is going to make sure you end up like your father,” De Lima said.

“I make the same prediction for Jaybee Sebastian,” she said.

Sebastian, an inmate at the maximum security compound at the New Bilibid Prisons, previously testified against De Lima as being allegedly the protector of drug lords operating out of the NBP in Muntinlupa City.

De Lima, whom President Duterte accused as a protector of drug lords, said NBP convicts and other witnesses, including Sebastian and the Espinosas, were threatened, enticed with incentives and killed to force them testify against her.

She also said Sebastian reportedly had declined to testify against her but following a deadly riot at the NBP where he was stabbed by another inmate, he changed his mind.

Before he was killed, Espinosa Sr. issued an affidavit naming his alleged protectors in the drug trade with De Lima on top of the list.

Kerwin is expected to appear this week before the Senate committee on inquiry into the Espinosa killing conducted by the committee on public order and dangerous drugs chaired by Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

“I would not like to preempt what Kerwin will testify on, but I will also not deny that given everything that the government has thrown at me, it won’t be farfetched that he will just be another of the witnesses to be brought against me in their effort to destroy me,” De Lima said.

She said she will closely listening to Kerwin’s testimony and would let the people judge as to its credibility given the circumstances of the moment where “drug personalities left and right are being stabbed or killed whether they cooperate with the government or not.”

 “As for the greatest mystery this government is trying to uncover, all this parade of witnesses has not proven a single thing, except its own deadly partnership with criminals and drug lords against me. It hasn’t shown a single evidence of where the money is,” she said.

She said even if Duterte has pressured the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) into releasing confidential records that would purportedly show her benefiting from the drug trade, there would be nothing there to prove allegations of her drug links.

“No amount of browbeating the AMLC can make me a billionaire in its records overnight.