ILOILO City – Former barangay councilman Jesus “Jing-jing” Espinosa of Barangay Monica Blumentritt, City Proper, convicted for frustrated murder, was transferred to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntilupa City, Metro Manila from the Iloilo District Jail (IDJ) in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo.
Espinosa was at one time ranked No. 2 in the Iloilo City Police Office – Police Station 1’s list of suspected drug personalities in the City Proper.
Also transferred to the national penitentiary on March 25 were 49 other IDJ convicted inmates, said Jail Superintendent Gilbert Peremne, deputy regional director for administration of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
The Supreme Court affirmed with finality Espinosa’s conviction in 2012 yet but his imprisonment was not carried out because the records of his case got misplaced. It was only last September 2016 when these were found during an inventory at the Chief Justice Ramon Q. Avanceña Hall of Justice on Bonifacio Drive here.
Espinosa turned himself in to the police on Oct. 4, 2016 a month after the records were found.
Espinosa was charged with frustrated murder on Jan. 21, 2003 with two others – Robinito “Bord” Malaga and Cris Rudy Balidiong – for the shooting of Mark Serra, a resident of Barangay Monica-Blumentritt, on Nov. 24, 2002.
Balidiong died during the pendency of the case. On June 20, 2005, the three of them were convicted by the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 31.
Espinosa appealed his conviction. The case reached the Court of Appeals and all the way to the Supreme Court.
Espinosa was given a prison sentence of eight years maximum as accomplice to the crime while Malaga got a maximum prison sentence of 14 years as the principal accused.
According to IDJ warden Jail Superintendent Vicente Papelera, Espinosa has pending drug-related cases at the Regional Trial Court branches 35 and 38.
“In these pending cases, either the hearings will be transferred to Metro Manila or he will be brought back here to attend them. The court will decide on that,” Papelera said./PN
