In a gripping revelation at the Ninth Quad Committee Hearing, former Senator Leila De Lima fearlessly confronted Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, imploring him to “tell the truth” about the darkness of the Duterte administration. Her call for honesty struck at the heart of the 2017 Senate investigations that sought to vilify her, accusing her of deep involvement in the illegal drug trade. At the time, De Lima, once the Secretary of the Department of Justice, had been the target of an orchestrated smear campaign that claimed she accepted vast sums of money in exchange for protecting the drug lords who controlled the notorious National Bilibid Prison—one of the key witnesses? Jovie Espenido.

In 2016, Espenido stood before the Senate, alleging that De Lima had taken a staggering PhP 8 million from Kerwin Espinosa, the son of the late Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa, whose assassination at the hands of the Philippine National Police (“PNP”) became a flashpoint in the drug war. Espenido went so far as to claim that De Lima and the Espinosa family met in Baguio City’s Burnham Park—a meeting, he said, that sealed her fate as the protector of the country’s drug lords.

Yet, beneath the surface of these accusations lay a chilling reality. The former president’s ruthless drug war had torn families apart and silenced those who dared defy his iron grip. Kerwin Espinosa, a reluctant pawn in this deadly game, later confessed how he and his family became marked for destruction following his father’s execution. They were forced to choose: falsely implicate Leila De Lima and Peter Lim in the drug trade or face certain death at the hands of a police force that had become judge, jury, and executioner under the guise of “nanlaban”—a deadly farce where suspects were claimed to have fought back.

De Lima’s plea to Espenido during the hearing carried the weight of a wrongfully accused, a woman whose life had been dismantled by lies. Unsurprisingly, Espenido confirmed her suspicions: he had been instructed by none other than then PNP Chief Bato Dela Rosa to conspire with Kerwin Espinosa. The orders were clear—fabricate accusations against De Lima, their testimonies must align, and the trap must be set. However, Espenido, perhaps burdened by the weight of his conscience, refused. His defiance did not come without a price. Branded a traitor, Espenido himself was added to the infamous narcologist, marked as a high-value target in the very war he once served.

The Quad Committee Investigations tore the veil off a regime that wielded fear like a weapon. The narcolist, initially marketed as a tool to rid the nation of drugs, had become a list of enemies—people who stood in opposition to former President Rodrigo Duterte and his iron-fisted rule. Duterte, who once bragged about emulating Adolf Hitler’s genocide, sought to purge millions of Filipinos supposedly entangled in the drug trade. The narcolist was his weapon of choice, a modern-day guillotine that sent shivers through the country.

The truth, as uncovered, is more sinister than anyone could have imagined. Names like Kerwin Espinosa, Leila De Lima, and former Iloilo Mayor Jed Mabilog became synonymous with the President’s vendetta. Innocent people like the slain Mayors Rolando Espinosa and Caesar Perez met their untimely ends. The narcolist wasn’t about justice—it was a hit list. Those who survived, like Kerwin Espinosa and Mabilog, revealed the grim cost of salvation: to clear their names, they had to implicate others in the drug trade, feeding a cycle of lies, fear, and murder.

The war on drugs was no crusade for justice—it was a bloodbath. Leila De Lima, who stood her ground in defiance of the man who orchestrated this campaign of terror, now stands as a symbol of resistance. The narcolist was Duterte’s weapon of control, a tool to destroy his enemies, and to keep the Philippines gripped in fear. For those ensnared by it, the choice was simple: kill, or be killed.

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