MANILA — A mayor detained at a jail in the central Philippines for drug-related charges was killed along with another inmate in a shootout on Saturday, police said, as a bloody crackdown on narcotics continues in the Southeast Asian country.
Rolando Espinosa, mayor of Albuera town in Leyte, turned himself in to the national police chief in August after President Rodrigo Duterte asked him and his son, Kerwin, to surrender over their involvement in the drug trade.
Espinosa was later allowed to go home but on Oct. 5 was arrested on charges of illegal possession of drugs. He is the second local government executive on Duterte’s so-called “narco-list” killed during police operations.
The shootout took place after Espinosa and inmate Raul Yap fired at a team from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group who was on a mission to serve a search warrant against the detainees for firearms and illegal drugs, police said.
“As a matter of procedure, this incident will undergo investigation to establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident,” Eastern Visayas Regional Police Chief Superintendent Elmer Beltejar said.
Police said they recovered a .45 caliber pistol and a .38 Super pistol from the cells of Yap and Espinosa. A small sachet containing suspected methamphetamine and assorted drug paraphernalia were also found inside Espinosa’s cell, police said. — Reuters
