'Probe escape of Espinosa slay convict'

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – A former director of the Office of Presidential Affairs for Bicol (OPAB) has requested the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the escape of the convicted killer of his father, former congressman Moises Espinosa Sr., from the Masbate provincial jail last Monday morning.

Mario Espinosa, former OPAB head and Masbate vice governor, said his family “strongly feels a cover-up on the sudden escape” of convict Florencio Fernandez Jr.

In a letter to Chief Superintendent Paterno Bangui, Bicol police director, DILG regional director Blandino Maceda, and NBI-Legazpi City chief Manuel Antonio Eduarte, Espinosa also sought the immediate relief of Masbate provincial jail warden Ricardo Bolanon and the filing of criminal and administrative charges against him for keeping mum about the escape of Fernandez, a “high-profile prisoner.”

As a result, no reports were issued by the Masbate City and provincial police offices on the escape of the former Masbate City vice mayor who was sentenced to four life terms by the Makati regional trial court for the murder of Espinosa Sr. at the Masbate airport in 1989.     

“Fernandez has been locked up at the provincial jail for the past three years after his conviction while seeking legal help to be kept at the provincial jail and not to be sent to the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP),” said Espinosa during a press conference.

He said Fernandez’s legal counsel, lawyer Romeo Sese, had filed appeals for Fernandez not to be sent to the NBP first with the Court of Appeals and then with the Supreme Court and Office of the Solicitor General, but these were all denied. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe