Prosecutor lowers criminal charges vs cops in Espinosa killing to homicide

June 8, 2017

Government prosecutors downgraded from murder to homicide criminal charges filed against policemen involved in the killing of then Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa and fellow inmate Raul Yap inside the Baybay, Leyte sub-provincial jail in 2016. In a motion filed last June 6, Leyte provincial prosecutor Arlene Hunamayor Cordovez told the Baybay, Leyte Regional Trial Court, Branch 14, of the justice department’s May 29 resolution lowering the indictment of the accused to homicide. Cordovez said she received a copy of the justice department decision last June 2 directing her to file a motion to amend the information against the policemen led by Supt. Marvin Marcos for murder and downgrade it to homicide. This came after the accused filed a petition for review seeking to reverse the resolution of a five-man panel of prosecutors headed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Lilian Doris Alejo that recommended their indictment for murder last March. The Baybay RTC has suspended the hearing of the case, while waiting for the DOJ to resolve the petition for review. DMS