Philippine police say a detained town mayor has been killed in his jail cell in a purported gunbattle with officers in the second killing in a week of a politician linked to illegal drugs under the president's brutal crackdown. According to the Philippine National Police (PNP), Espinosa fought back at operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) that were serving him a search warrant, at 4 a.m. on Saturday, for illegal possession of firearms inside his cell at the Leyte sub-provincial jail in Baybay City. A police report stated that the raiding team recovered a sachet of suspected shabu and drug paraphernalia from Espinosa. Kerwin fled but was nabbed in the United Arab Emirates last month and is set to return to the Philippines to face drug trafficking charges. Many of those killed in the initial months of the crackdown were poor drug suspects, and police said "high-value targets," including mayors and drug lords, would be their next target in a new phase of the crackdown that was launched late last month.
The mayor of Albuera, Leyte, accused of drug trafficking, is shot dead in jail.