(Eagle News) — Senator Leila De Lima has predicted that suspected Eastern Visayas drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, as well as high-profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian, would sooner or later end up dead, even if they cooperate with the government.
De Lima, whom both Espinosa and Sebastian had earlier implicated as having been involved in the illegal drugs business, issued the statement as Kerwin is expected to appear before the Senate inquiry investigating the death of his father, Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa.
“This is my advice to Kerwin. Don’t ever think that your ‘cooperation’ will spare you your life. Sooner or later this government is going to make sure you end up like your father,” said De Lima in a statement on Sunday
“I make the same prediction for Jaybee Sebastian,” she added.
Kerwin was arrested in the United Arab Emirates last month and will face drug trafficking charges. His father Rolando, a mayor President Rodrigo Duterte named as being involved in the illegal drug trade, was shot dead in jail on November 5. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE
In an earlier House inquiry, Sebastian had tagged De Lima as a protector of the illegal drug trade emanating from the New Bilibid Prisons where she allegedly benefitted. In his testimony, as well as the testimonies of other high-profile NBP inmates, they were allegedly instructed by De Lima’s representatives to raise money for her senatorial bid. This was when De Lima was still the Justice Secretary.
Kerwin’s father, on the other hand, had also named De Lima in his judicial affidavit which included all the protectors of Kerwin’s alleged illegal drugs business in the Eastern Visayas region.
De Lima said she would not be surprised if Kerwin would openly implicate her during the Senate inquiry.
“I will also not deny that given everything that the government has thrown at me, it won’t be farfetched that he will just be another of the witnesses to be brought against me in their effort to destroy me,” she said.
“Be that as it may, I will be listening to Kerwin’s testimony, and let the people judge as to its credibility given the circumstances of the moment where drug lords/drug personalities left and right are being stabbed or killed whether they cooperate with the government or not,” the lady senator said.
De Lima also claimed that the Duterte government would not get any financial records or bank statements that would show that she received money from the illegal drug trade.
“Show us the money. I assure you there is none. No amount of browbeating the (Anti-Money Laundering Council) can make me a billionaire in its records overnight,” she said.
She suggested that the bank accounts of those benefitting from “this great distraction” be probed instead.
“Maybe we should look at whose bank accounts are getting fatter as this great distraction of the stoning of De Lima is being performed to the delight of some of the public,” De Lima said.
