Eastern Visayas Media Without Borders
by Miriam G. Desacada
Albuera Leyte–Newly installed Albuera (Leyte) Mayor Rolan Kerwin Espinosa, who was tagged as a drug lord in the past, revealed that proliferation of illegal drugs is worsening now across the province, with the source coming from the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog, Leyte reaching to the streets of Ormoc City past his own town.
He raised this critical reality on Monday (July 1) moments before he took his oath of office during the first day of his official assumption as mayor of the town that was once held by his late father. He said the spread of illegal drugs undermines political and economic stability of local governments in Leyte, adding that he must do something about it.
The oath-taking of Kerwin was attended by his family, his wife and six children, as the municipal employees and the police came to lend their full support to the new mayor.
In his speech during the turnover ceremony of the mayoralty, he told LGU officers and employees, among other stakeholders of the municipality, that he is asking for their full support and cooperation in his campaign to eliminate the spread of illegal drugs in Albuera.
Determined to erase the stigma of his being branded as a drug lord before, and also to rekindle his late father’s good name as the town mayor in the past, Kerwin vowed to start his fight now against illicit drugs throughout his term as chief executive of his town.
Kerwin lamented that the killing of his father, while under custody of authorities, was not given justice aside from being accused of unproven involvement in illegal drugs. He said his electoral victory is a vindication and an affirmation of the renewed trust of the town to the Espinosa family.
Kerwin told the public he is now a new Kerwin free from the negative labeling of his being a drug lord in the past. Without denial or confirming of this harsh label, Kerwin only said he was pressured by the powers-that-be at the time to admit his alleged role as the drug lord in the illegal trade.
He recounted that, in 2023, the charges of his alleged involvement in illegal drugs have been dismissed, and this led him to return to his hometown to fulfill his promise to his late father that he will raise back the honor and dignity of the Espinosa family in Albuera.
He said he ordered the Albuera Police force to arrest anybody found engaged in illegal drugs, declaring he does not want his administration to be dirtied by the proliferation of these illegal items within his area of responsibility.
Kerwin said he requested the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Region 8 (PDEA-8) to put up a PDEA satellite office in Albuera to achieve immediate results in anti-illegal drug operations inside Albuera. He said he needs full support to wipe out this societal problem that destroys the future of the youth.
Kerwin added that, aside from his campaign against criminality in Albuera, he is also prioritizing the welfare of farmers and fishermen, who provide food to tables of the people.
Kerwin’s sister, his younger sibling Mariel Espinosa Mahinay, who was elected as Albuera’s vice mayor, said that with the trust bestowed on them, they will not waste this opportunity to serve the people of Albuera again.
Meanwhile, PDEA-8 did not yet comment on the request of Kerwin, as well as on the latter’s revelation that the proliferation of illegal drugs in Leyte starts at the LRP in Abuyog, spreading up to the 4th district in Ormoc City, while this is being validated.
It can be recalled that, in 2016, a suspected drug lord operating inside the LRP was killed by CIDG operatives in an encounter during a raid inside the penal colony. The slain suspect was a jailed convict from Laguna who was transferred to the LRP. The CIDG said his wife was a chemist who reportedly was the one in charged of cooking shabu right inside the facility.
From then on, illegal drug authorities have been monitoring the activities inside the confines of the regional prison in Abuyog, Leyte. —- Miriam G. Desacada
