Espenido retracts Senate testimony vs de Lima

RETIRED police officer Jovie Espenido on Tuesday retracted his Senate testimony against former justice secretary and former senator Leila de Lima, confirming that he had spoken to another witness, a confessed drug lord, to make sure their testimonies were consistent. At a hearing of the House quad committee on Tuesday, Espenido was asked to confirm the testimony of Kerwin Espinosa that former police chief and now Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa had instructed them to make sure their testimonies against de Lima were consistent. "Do you confirm this? Yes or no," Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro asked Espenido. "I confirm, your honor," Espenido said. Luistro then asked him whether he was "retracting all the testimonies that you gave against" de Lima during the Senate investigation several years ago on her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade. "Yes, your honor," he said. De Lima, who was also at the quad committee hearing as a resource person, had said earlier on Tuesday that she wanted to hear from Espenido what Espinosa said during the last hearing, that Dela Rosa had asked them to get their testimonies in line. The Manila Times sought a comment from Dela Rosa, who earlier denied that he had forced Espinosa to link de Lima to the illegal drug trade. De Lima has been cleared of all three drug-related charges filed against her in court. The quad committee is looking into alleged extrajudicial killings during the drug war under the Duterte administration, in which thousands of drug suspects were killed in police operations. It had invited former president Rodrigo Duterte to its probe as a resource person in a letter dated Oct. 18, 2024. "Unfortunately, despite his keen intention to attend, my client respectfully manifests that he cannot attend the public hearing set on 22 October 2024," read the October 21 letter by lawyer Martin Delgra III to Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, overall chairman of the quad committee. Delgra said Duterte, 79, had just arrived in Davao from Metro Manila on October 17 and needed rest. "Rest assured of my client's willingness to appear before the House of Representatives on some other available date, preferably after 01 November 2024," the letter read. "I hope he (Duterte) gets well already so he would have the health to face the music," de Lima told reporters in Filipino and English before the hearing started. Earlier this month, Royina Garma, a retired police colonel and former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager, had testified on the alleged reward system for drug kills. Former presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo dismissed Garma's claim as "pure imagination or fertile speculation." In the House quad committee hearing on Tuesday, de Lima, a former chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, testified on the CHR's 2009 probe into the alleged "Davao Death Squad" (DDS). She shared with the committee a witness' testimony about the alleged DDS payment system. De Lima said she wants former president Rodrigo Duterte to admit that he did her wrong by filing bogus charges against her. De Lima was eventually cleared of all three drug-related cases filed against her in court, but spent almost seven years in detention.