Friday, July 13, 2007 Court clears drug suspect By Rimaliza Opiña
THE LIST of acquittals of drug cases is getting longer.
This, as the City's Special Anti Drugs Court acquitted a suspect drug dealer after learning that the buy-bust team of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the Cordillera illegally searched the house of the accused, named as Marina Black.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 61 Presiding Judge Antonio Reyes said the buy-bust team composed of Officers Marquez Madlon, Daniel Akia and Erwin Garcia, failed to present evidence that their warrantless search and eventual arrest of Black was justified under the existing circumstances then.
The court said the buy-bust operation was a mere excuse because records showed that no initial laboratory examination of the drugs confiscated by the PDEA was done. As such, the accused should not have been subjected to inquest proceedings because there was no evidence yet to sustain the charges as written in the charge sheet.
The court said drugs that was allegedly recovered from Black was transmitted for laboratory examination only on March 18, 2005 at 12noon.
Black's case information revealed that she was arrested for selling P500 worth of shabu on May 17, 2005, to undercover agents of the PDEA.
"This court is bewildered by the fact that even without any evidence yet on hand to show that what was taken and recovered from the accused was indeed a dangerous drug, the police officers subjected her to inquest procedure," the court maintained.
The seven-page decision further stated that "no explanation was offered for not obtaining a search warrant except for the inconvenience and slight delay necessary to prepare papers and present evidence to a judge, not to mention the sheer laziness and ineptitude of officers. These are never convincing reasons and in these circumstances, certainly are not enough to bypass the constitutional requirement. No suspect was fleeing or likely to take flight. The search was of permanent premises, not of a movable vehicle."
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