MANILA — State lawyers have formally asked the Manila Regional Trial Court to use Kerwin Espinosa’s driver as key witness in the charges they have filed against the self-confessed drug lord.
In a three-page motion, the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked to Manila RTC Branch 51 to grant its motion to discharge accused Marcelo Labay Adorco as state witness.
The DOJ said Adorco, 42, provided testimony that is “absolutely necessary as there is no other direct evidence available for the proper prosecution of the offense committed”.
Senior Assistant State Prosecutors Juan P. Navera and Anna Noreen T. Devanadera, Assistant State Prosecutor Gino Paulo S. Santiago and Associate Prosecutor Herbert Calvin Abugan signed the motion.
Espinosa and Adorco, who claimed to be the former’s errand boy and driver, have been named in the charges of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading filed by the Philippine National Police (PNP). Also charged were convicted drug lord Peter Co, Lovely Impal and Ruel Malindangan.
The investigating panel based its findings on the testimony of Adorco, who confessed his participation in the illegal drug trade and pointed to Espinosa, Co, Impal and Malindangan as his co-conspirators.