We’ve heard of it before. Dead men tell no tales This is exactly what happened to Iloilo top drug lord Melvin Odicta. For those who missed it, he and his wife Meriam were shot dead early Monday morning by unidentified assailants after exiting from the Port of Caticlan in Aklan. The assailants, according to the police, managed to escape under the cover of darkness.
The couple were on their way home to Iloilo when the shooting occurred. The Odictas came from Manila where they had a meeting with DILG Secretary Ismael Sueno, where they denied their involvement in the illegal drugs business. The Odictas, police reports revealed, have been on the watchlist of the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA), however.
Despite being in the watchlist for so many years, the Odictas were never invited for questioning by law enforcement agencies regarding their alleged links with drug syndicates or their involvement in the proliferation of illegal drugs in the Western Visayas region. This angle should be “looked into” by the police – to find out who among the top politicians of Iloilo as well as high ranking police officers might have shielded the Odicta couple from being harassed by law enforcement agencies.
President Duterte said recently Iloilo is the most “shabolized” province in the country. I don’t know why Senator Frank Drilon, who is from Iloilo and one of the most outspoken politicians in the country today, is surprisingly silent on this matter. Maybe the senator is just busy gloating on the now completed multi-billion peso Iloilo Convention Center. By the way, the contractor who built the convention center, which is a pet project of Drilon, is the same builder who constructed the overpriced controversial Makati Car Park building.
Critics of President Duterte are saying that the Odictas were killed either by the police or by a vigilante group responsible for the deaths of so many suspected drug peddlers and addicts all over the country.
Police, on the other hand, are saying that there is a strong possibility that Odicta and his wife were killed by drug syndicates to prevent him from implicating government officials and ranking police generals involved in the illegal drugs trade.
Secretary Sueno is not saying if the Odicta couple mentioned any names or if they implicated anyone involved after what turned out to be their last trip to Manila.
After the death of Odicta, who’s next? Maybe Pangasinan Congressman Amado Espino Jr or Albuera town Mayor Rodolfo Espinosa of Leyte?
Both Congressman Espino and Mayor Espinosa were tagged by President Duterte as having been involved in the illegal drugs. Mayor Espinosa has already admitted being a drug coddler. Police said the mayor is also engaged in illegal drugs, together with his son “Kerwin.” He earlier executed a sworn affidavit linking Senator Leila De Lima and Pangasinan Congressman Amado Espino Jr as well as former Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III as having a hand in the protection of drug lords as well as the proliferation of narcotics in the country.
The mayor also detailed in his affidavit that De Lima, Espino and Baraan were responsible for the rise of his son, Kerwin, to be the top drug lord in Eastern Visayas. While Espinosa has surrendered to authorities and has sought police protection for fear of his life, Espino continues to deny any involvement in the narcotics trade.
Police said Espino is worth P4 billion. How he acquired so much wealth in so short a time is unbelievable. Among the many properties he owns include an island in Pangasinan, and a 20-hectare fishpond located also in Pangasinan and a fleet of imported cars and vans.
If found guilty, President Duterte should order the seizure of all of Espino’s property and auction them. The proceeds should be given to indigents or to finance the construction of health centers in the rural areas of the country.
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Embattled Senator and suspected drug lords coddler Leila de Lima is slowly but surely sinking into a quagmire with no hope of being extricated by her fellow Liberal Party senators for her alleged involvement in the narcotics business.
The Ethics Committee of the Senate is expected to deliberate on the merits of the complaint filed recently by one Abelardo de Jesus, a lawyer, regarding the alleged involvement of De Lima in the Narcotics trade. De Jesus wants the Senate Ethics committee to look into the possible involvement of De Lima while she was the Secretary of Justice.
Everyone knows that illegal drugs flourished during her reign in the Justice department during the administration of President Benigno Aquino.
More and more people are demanding that De Lima resign from the Senate, or at least take a leave of absence, until such time that the allegations about her being a drug coddler are proven to be untrue. They said De Lima has lost her moral authority to discharge her duties as a lawmaker. Her loyal party mates and supporters, on the other, are encouraging her not to step down from the Senate since she was duly elected by some 12 million Filipinos. But if I were De Lima, the very least that I will do is to take a leave of absence until such time that all charges leveled against her will b