Superintendent Marvin Marcos. ABS-CBN file photo

MANILA - (UPDATED) Superintendent Marvin Marcos, the controversial officer who led a prison raid that left Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa dead is set to head the Philippine National Police (PNP) Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of Soccsksargen region, an official said Thursday.

CIDG Director Roel Obusan confirmed this in an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN News, just a day after President Rodrigo Duterte called for the reinstatement of Marcos.

Obusan said the PNP-Directorate for Personnel Records and Management has released the papers that would allow Marcos and 15 of his men to resume work in their mother unit, CIDG.

The top post in CIDG-12, he added, was vacant and Marcos' rank fits the position.

"Region 12 ang bakante ngayon. Yung dating hepe doon na si Senior Superintendent Felix Henrita, naging provincial director dito sa Region 5, Bicol region just recently, 'yun ang bakante talaga," Obusan said.

"Nagre-require ang rank ni Marcos na umupo doon kasi senior na rin ang rank niya. We follow the seniority of rank. Magiging hepe siya doon dahil iyun ang commensurate sa rank niya."



Marcos' men will be deployed to the CIDG units of Soccsksargen and Central Visayas.

"Yung iba ipinunta ko sa Region 7, yung iba ipinunta ko rin sa Region 12 kase kakaunti naman ang tao sa Mindanao. After kase itong Marawi incident, [after] kase sa ISIS, merong problema ng Abu Sayyaf at BIFF [Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters] sa Region 12," Obusan said.

Marcos was head of PNP CIDG-Central Visayas last November when he and 18 other officers conducted a pre-dawn search of the Leyte sub-provincial jail, where they shot dead Espinosa and another inmate, Raul Yap.

Two Senate panels and the National Bureau of Investigation earlier said in separate reports that Espinosa's killing was "premeditated" by the police to cover up their involvement in the illegal drug activities of the mayor.

The slain mayor's son Kerwin, who confessed to being a drug dealer in the region, testified during a Senate inquiry that Marcos was on his payroll -- an allegation that the officer tearfully denied.

The Department of Justice, however, saw no premeditation in the killing and downgraded the charges against the policemen to homicide from murder.

The separate administrative case against Marcos' group, meanwhile, has been resolved in their favor.