By HANNAH TORREGOZA
Cite downgrading of raps vs Marcos, et al.
Senators are one in saying there was an apparent cover up in the liability of Supt. Marvin Marcos and 18 other policemen who were involved in the deaths of Albuera Leyte Rolando Espinosa and fellow inmate Raul Yap inside the Baybay city provincial jail last year.
This was after the Senate committees on public order and dangerous drugs and justice and human rights held another inquiry into the controversial reinstatement of all the cops involved in the killing of the mayor at the height of President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal campaign on illegal drugs last year.
“The hearing showed that there’s a cover-up. If anything, the hearing this morning proved that there’s a cover-up on the liability of Marcos,” Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon told reporters at the sidelines of the hearing.
“Instead of being able to explain what happened, it is obvious from the hearing today that there’s a deliberate cover-up to allow Marcos and his group to be reinstated and to allow Marcos and his group to be able to post bail. To me, what the hearing today confirms is a conspiracy to cover-up,” Drilon said.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) recently granted Marcos and the 18 other cops tagged in the Albuera mayor’s case a “back to duty” status after the Department of Justice (DoJ) downgraded the murder cases filed against them to homicide.
This despite a Senate and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) report affirming that the killing had been premeditated.
PNP Chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa defended their reassignment saying he did so upon the President’s prodding. Marcos reassigned to Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Region 12.
“Your honor, I was able to talk to the President, he’s always intimating to me that their salaries are going to waste, so let them work,” Dela Rosa said in response to Sen. Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV’s question.
