MANILA (UCAN): Jovie Espenido, a lieutenant colonel and the one-time poster boy of the anti-drugs campaign of former president, Rodrigo Duterte, said that Duterte’s closest associates, senators Christopher Go and Ronald dela Rosa, ordered police officers to use “all means necessary” to eradicate drug suspects.
Speaking before a House of Representatives panel on August 28, the 55-year-old Espenido further alleged that the murderous deeds were rewarded with handsome cash payments.
“The PNP [Philippine National Police] is the biggest crime syndicate in the country,” he said during a nationally televised hearing into the ruthless campaign that Duterte led from 2016 to 2022. It led to the killing of more than 20,000 people, according to rights groups.
Espenido, who is set to retire this October, led the campaign in Ozamiz City, northern Mindanao, that saw the killings of city mayor, Reynaldo Parojinog, his wife, brother, and 12 other suspects in a pre-dawn raid in July 2017.
The lieutenant colonel, who fell out with Duterte in 2020, arranged the successful surrender of the alleged drug lord in Eastern Visayas, Kerwin Espinosa, in Albuera town, Leyte province in November 2016.
“He [Espenido] is, in effect, a whistleblower, an insider whose testimony carries much weight,” Carlos Conde, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, said on August 29.
Abuses related to the drug war have been firmer, “established by the testimony” Conde stressed and should prompt the government to start an investigation. The thousands of Filipinos who died in the brutal campaign “deserve no less,” he added.
“The Church is clear on its stand. Anything that violates human rights, we don’t want it,” said Jing Rey Henderson, head of communications of Caritas Philippines.
“If there is evidence of human rights violations, the Church is always there to help the victims,” Henderson said on August 29.
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“We hope we will soon receive justice for the killings of our family members,” said a resident from the Eastern Visayas region who spoke on condition of anonymity.
During the hearing by the House panel, Espenido alleged that the Duterte administration had maintained ties with Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators [POGOs], which were banned by the country’s current president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., on July 28.
Former justice secretary and senator, Leila De Lima, a vocal critic of the drug war who the Duterte administration jailed for almost seven years, hailed Espenido for shedding light on the “state-sponsored killings.”
“Espenido knows more. He must tell all. Time for redemption,” De Lima said.
Both Dela Rosa and Go have denied the allegations by Espenido, who faces six counts of homicide in the killing of the “Martilyo Gang” members in Ozamiz City in 2017.
