MANILA – Malacañang dismissed as “fake news” the report that Police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido, former deputy director for operations of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), was in the drug watch list of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Espenido was pulled out from Bacolod City Friday last week, four months after he was assigned to the BCPO by Duterte himself.
Citing two police generals as sources, online news website Rappler reported yesterday that Espenido was in the President’s narco list.
But presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said, “Espenido in the narco list? Sino naglagay doon? Galing pala sa Rappler. ‘Pag galing sa Rappler eh questionable.”
The Duterte administration has been going after Rappler since last year. It filed 11 cases against the online news site, its chief executive officer Maria Ressa and its reporters. Rappler described this as a “clear form of continuing intimidation and harassment…and an attempt to silence journalists.”
“I am saying that if it’s coming from Rappler, which is known for spreading fake news, medyo I will have to confirm whether it is true or not,” said Panelo.
The Palace spokesperson, however, admitted having no idea about the narco list.
“Hindi ko alam kung kasali o hindi but (what) I am telling you is we have to validate that,” Panelo said. “We will check kung totoo o hindi. Iva-validate natin ang veracity ng report.”
Espenido became the face of the Duterte administration’s war against illegal drugs following two operations that led to the death of two prominent suspected drug personalities.
He was the police chief of Albuera, Leyte when the town’s then mayor Rolando Espinosa, a detained drug suspect, was shot dead inside his jail cell in 2016 in a police operation to serve a search warrant.
As police chief in Ozamiz City in 2017, Espenido led a series of drug operations that resulted to the death of Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and 15 others also linked to illegal drugs.
For its part, the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) stressed having no knowledge of the reasons behind Espenido’s sudden relief from the BCPO.
“We really do not know the reason. Basta kami kun may order, ga-follow lang kami,” said Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, regional police information officer.
The relief order from the Philippine National Police (PNP) national headquarters was dated Feb. 5 yet but was received by the PRO-6 only on Feb. 7.
It was issued some two weeks after Espenido described Bacolod City as “shabulized”.
“Panay ang huli ng pulis…Marami palang drugs,” said Espenido.
Espenido, aside from being the deputy director for operations of the BCPO, also headed the Bacolod City Drug Enforcement Unit.
“When we received the relief order, we immediately informed the BCPO director. The order did not state the reason,” said Malong.
The order came from the PNP chief himself, Police Lieutenant General Archie Gamboa. He reassigned Espenido to his office in Camp Crame on floating status./PN
