Police links burning of couple in Leyte to illegal drugs

TACLOBAN CITY, Feb. 10 (PNA) -- The Philippine National Police (PNP) is looking at illegal drugs trade as the motive in the recent burning of a couple in an upland village in Abuyog, Leyte.

PNP Regional Director Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar disclosed that one of the victims had kept the wealth of late Edgardo Alvarez, an alleged drug lord, who was killed for fighting back to the police during an anti-drug raid at the Abuyog Penal Colony last August 2016.

The two cadavers, found on Jan. 26, were identified by the police this week as live-in partners Bernardino Remolador, 44 and Jennifer Mahinay Corsiga, 25. Also found in the car was a short firearm of unknown caliber.

Corsiga is the daughter of Fernando Corsiga, an inmate of Abuyog Penal Colony, who was charged of murder.

Police recovered the two badly burnt bodies inside the scorched car on a roadside in Balinsasayao village, Abuyog, Leyte.

The burnt vehicle was a Toyota Avanza 2008 model and owned by Bernardino’s younger brother, Fernando.

On Aug. 11, 2016, Alvarez was killed inside the Abuyog Penal Colony in Abuyog town during the implementation of search warrant by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group led by Supt. Marvin Marcos.

The search warrant was for an initial report where there were allegedly illegal firearms and marijuana where Alvarez was detained.

Marcos is the police official who also led the raid at the Baybay City sub-provincial jail that killed detained Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa, Sr. in November last year.

The penal colony was identified as a source of possible illegal drugs for suspected drug kingpin Kerwin Espinosa, the mayor’s son who is now under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation.(PNA)

JMC/SQM/VICKY C. ARNAIZ/EGR