Editorial: Going back to the basics

A PANEL of prosecutors at the Misamis Oriental Prosecutor’s Office had dismissed the case filed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) against four alleged drug suspects that PDEA agents arrested during a buy-bust operation in September last year.

With the dismissal, the four suspects have already been released last Wednesday, January 23, from the Misamis Oriental Provincial Jail where they have been detained after their arrest.

Perhaps it’s frustrating to know that while our law enforcers are trying hard to arrest law violators, sometimes they seem to forget the “whats” and the “hows” in the filing of the cases.

In a resolution, the panel of prosecutors said they dismissed the case for failure of the PDEA agents to establish probable cause.

During the buy-bust operation, PDEA agents seized an estimated P500,000 worth of illegal drugs from one of the suspects.

But the prosecutors reportedly doubted that the “unholy hour of the conduct of buy-bust operation, the unnatural actions of the arrested persons, the faulty intelligence, and the factual improbabilities are not trivial matters as they touch on the core issue of whether there was a buy bust operation.”

The four drug suspects were arrested in a buy-bust operation conducted around 6 a.m. in a subdivision in Barangay Barra, Misamis Oriental. And we can’t help but ask, is 6 a.m. an “unholy hour?”

We respect the decision of the court and that, perhaps, PDEA and its agents should go back to the basics and check all documents and evidences before filing any case in court. In that way, their efforts, which of course include “sleepless surveillance,” would not go to waste.