TACLOBAN CITY-A radio reporter, based this city, mentioned during a Senate inquiry on the killing of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., said that he is willing to appear before the body and clear his name.
Eulogio Caorte, 50, who works at DyBr (Kaugop Radyo), said that he has nothing to hide or fear considering that he was in the area to cover the incident.
“I was part of the team, yes but I was not part of the operation. I was not even aware who was or were the subject or subjects of the operation except that a search warrants are to be served by the CIDG(Criminal Investigation and Detection Group),” he said during an interview.
The radio man stressed that he was not informed by the CIDG raiding team where they were going saying he knew if it was part of the police operations.
“I only learned about where we’re heading when the vehicles we were on board stopped to a familiar land mark which was the office of the DPWH in Baybay City,” he said.
The Leyte subprovincial jail in Baybay is located near the office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) located in Barangay Hiposngo, a kilometer away from the city center.
Caorte claimed that when the CIDG team, headed by Inspector Leo Laraga entered the facility, he was prohibited by Laraga to join the group to enter the building where the prison cells were located.
“I was inside the compound but not inside the building,” he said.
Minutes after they arrived at the facility, Caorte said,he heard burst of fire followed by a commotion then another burst of fire.
“I later learned that the subjects were Mayor Espinosa and one (Raul) Yap,” Caorte said.
He also said that while he knew that Espinosa was among the prisoners at the jail facility, he had no idea that the subject of the operation was Espinosa, father of Eastern Visayas drug lord.
Caorte said that he did not see a firearm near the dead body of Espinosa saying that he was able to see the corpse of Espinosa after the team of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) from Ormoc City finished their work.
Caorte said that he is willing to appear before the Senate to answer senators’ questions on the matter.
“I will only tell them what I knew. I was there to cover the operation and nothing else,”Caorte said.
During the Senate inquiry on Thursday(Nov.10), the senators asked that Caorte be summoned to shed light on some issues related to the death of Espinosa.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
