MANILA – Two of the respondents in the controversial drug case filed against self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa were killed recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
In a subpoena issued on Tuesday in the drug case filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the DOJ said respondents Max Miro and Nelson “Jun” Pepito were already dead.
Pepito was killed by two unidentified men riding a motorcycle at 6:50 a.m. in Albuera, Leyte on Dec. 1, 2017. Authorities have yet to identify the perpetrators.
Miro, on the other hand, was killed by police in an operation in Barangay Bantigue, Ormoc City on March 10.
The DOJ issued summons to the respondents, led by Espinosa, high-profile inmate Peter Co and Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim, for a preliminary investigation on April 12.
Others named respondents were Lovely Impal, Ruel Malindangan, and 11 others only known through their aliases.
A three-member panel created by Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II was investigating the case.
It comprises Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, Assistant State Prosecutor Anna Noreen Devanadera and Prosecution Attorney Herbert Calvin Abugan.
The new panel was created to review the verdict of the previous panel – composed of Assistant State Prosecutor Michael John Humarang and Regional Trial Court Judge Aristotle Reyes, former assistant state prosecutor – that dismissed the case for being “weak.”/PN
