“Son, if you are seeing me now on television, you can see I’m suffering. Just surrender. Just surrender because the President [Duterte] and PNP Chief [Ronald] dela Rosa will help us. I believe that if you surrender, they will help you.”

Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., tears streaming down his face, made a plea for his son, Kerwin, a suspected drug lord, to turn himself in as he himself did on Tuesday following shoot-on-sight orders from President Duterte if he did not surrender within 24 hours.

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The elder Espinosa went to the Philippine National Police headquarters for questioning on whether the presence of armed men in his hometown of Albuera, Leyte province, had something to do with the allegations that he was involved or was protecting the illegal activities of his son.

“It would depend on the investigation of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). Just in case he won’t be charged, he will be allowed to go home,” Dela Rosa told reporters when asked if Espinosa would be charged in connection with the predawn gun battle in Albuera on Wednesday.

“He can’t be charged with illegal possession of firearms since the firearms were in the possession of those who were killed. He was not in Albuera, he is not in constructive possession of those firearms. The chicken farm [where the shootout took place] near his house belongs to him, but he is here [in Manila] all along. So we’ll see how we can connect it (shootout) to him,” Dela Rosa explained.

Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos said that based on the records from the Firearms and Explosives Office, there were only three firearms registered to the mayor—a shotgun and two handguns.

Expired registration

The registrations for the handguns have expired, the PNP spokesperson said, but he added that investigators were still going to find out if any of the mayor’s guns were in the possession of those killed.

Carlos said guns with expired registrations must be surrendered for safekeeping to the nearest police station.

He said the investigation would also determine if the armed group encountered by the police were just a “security force” of the mayor or could be regarded as a private army.

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Dela Rosa pointed out that Espinosa had earlier denied coddling Kerwin but he said if the son were apprehended and he tagged his father as his protector, it would be a different matter.

“What if we catch the son and he says he’s just the manager and that his father is the real owner of the business? They will just point at each other,” he said.

Back to Crame

The mayor, accompanied by his wife, daughter and lawyer, arrived at the CIDG headquarters in Camp Crame on Wednesday. The group did not speak to the media. The meeting with the CIDG was held closed doors.

The mayor was to undergo “processing” over the accusations that he was a drug lord himself or was protecting his son. Espinosa was also expected to sign an affidavit of undertaking as proof of the commitment he made before Dela Rosa on Tuesday that Espinosa would work hard to rid Albuera of illegal drugs.

Espinosa left the CIDG office at 6 p.m. Close to tears, he aired a plea, in Cebuano, to his son to surrender so he would not be killed.

Affidavit

The mayor executed a seven-page judicial affidavit on the situation in his town and his son’s activities. He even repeated his earlier statement that Kerwin’s possible supplier was Peter Co, a convicted drug lord detained at the New Bilibid Prison.

As for the shootout in Albuera and the raid on his house, Espinosa said he was informed about it at 5 a.m. He denied knowing the two men who were killed at the garage of his house.

Chief Insp. Roque Merdegia Jr., a lawyer and officer in charge of the antitransnational crime unit of the CIDG, asked questions to the mayor in the affidavit.

Romeo Esmero said his client would not yet go back to Leyte.

He said the mayor had been in Manila since July 22 owing to death threats he received after rounding up some 300 drug suspects in the town.

The mayor accused the local chief of police of threatening to kill him over his alleged links to illegal drug activities.

‘No control’

Asked if the family knew where Kerwin is, the lawyer replied, “They don’t know where he is.” The mayor, in his affidavit, said he last saw his son in May.

Esmero also said Espinosa no longer had any control over his son after he warned Kerwin about his alleged involvement in illegal drugs.

“He (Kerwin) no longer lives with his father. But he (Espinosa) admonished his son,” the lawyer said, adding that the investigators were not able to show proof of the mayor’s links to any illegal drug activities.

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