Friday, October 10, 2008 NBI awaits certificate, laboratory results before filing 2 more cases against Joavan
THE delay in the release of a police certificate and results of lab tests on the tin foils and tooter allegedly taken from Joavan Fernandez during his arrest has stalled the decision of whether additional charges should be filed against him.
Special Investigator Greg Tomagan said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents who took Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez’s son into custody already signed affidavits for a second and third charges – illegal possession of ammunition and violations of the anti-drug act.
“The only thing missing is the certification and the chemical report,” he said.
Affidavits
The affidavits, Tomagan said, detail how agents found two magazines, one for a pistol and the other for a sub-machine gun, along with several pieces of .45 cal. and 9mm cartridges, as well as pieces of tin foil and a tooter.
A tooter is a pieced-together group of glass cylinders used in sniffing shabu. It has a chamber where the shabu is placed while being heated, a separate chamber to capture the vapor and a tube from which to inhale it.
NBI Executive Officer Ernesto Macabare, however, said the affidavits and the evidence are not sufficient without a certificate from the Firearms Explosives Security Agencies and Guards Supervisory Section (Fessags) 7 and a chemistry report.
Tooter
“If there is any basis, we will file the necessary charges. If not, we will follow the law,” he said.
If the certification from Fessags shows that Joavan owns licensed firearms chambered in .45 cal. and 9mm, his possession of the cartridges during his arrest is deemed lawful.
Moreover, if no traces of drugs are found in the tin foil per the chemistry report, there may not be any basis to charge him for drug possession.
The tooter, however, may warrant a complaint for possession of drug paraphernalia.
Sec. 12 of Republic Act 9165 penalizes the “possession of equipment, instrument, apparatus and other paraphernalia for dangerous drugs.”
The provision sets the penalty of imprisonment of up to four years and a fine of up to P50,000 to any person caught in possession of “any equipment, instrument, apparatus and other paraphernalia fit or intended for smoking, consuming, administering, injecting, ingesting, or introducing any dangerous drug into the body.” (KNR)
