Leyte mayor, bro negative for drugs

BRYAN ROY B. PADILLA

TACLOBAN CITY — Bato Leyte Mayor Bryan Nile Gertos and his brother Lhowel cleared their names of alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade in Leyte after testing negative for drugs, several days after voluntarily surrendering to police authorities here.

Leyte PNP provincial director Norberto Tuazon said that since he assumed his post Mayor Gertos and his brother were already in the drug watchlist and placed under monitoring since 2016 until they showed up last week to erase and clear their names from the list.

“Well the following to happen is that the adjudication provincial committee of the Leyte PNP provincial office will still have to monitor the moves of Mayor Gertos and his brother Lhowel until they will officially be delisted from the High Value Target drug personalities in the province,” Tuaz on said.

After surrendering, the two were also brought to the PNP crime laboratory for a surprise drug test and yielded negative results. After the mayor’s return to Bato a surprise drug test was also conducted on almost 400 municipal employees and police personnel, all tested negative for drugs.

The names of Mayor Gertos and his brother were actually not in President Rodrigo Duterte’s narco-list but in the High Value Target list of the PDEA and PNP.

Former Albuera, Leyte, police chief Jovie Espenido said last week lawyers, judges, and 10 government officials in Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas are currently being monitored for their alleged involvement in illegal drug operations.

Espinedo’s statement came after lawyer Jonnah Ungab, legal counsel of Kerwin Espinosa, was killed in ambush in Cebu City.