Court sentences pusher to life in jail, acquits another for lack of evidence

Regional Trial Court judge Gabriel Ingles yesterday slapped a drug pusher with a penalty of life imprisonment and acquitted another for lack of evidence.

Ingles rejected the defense of Amelito Reynes, of legal age, and a resident of sitio Ponce Compound in barangay Tejero that he was only arrested by the policemen because they got mad at him after they failed to catch up with the drug pusher they were chasing.

Reynes said that he was watching a video karera game at the house of his aunt on September 18, 2003, when an unidentified person suddenly entered the house. He later found out that the man was chased by a group of policemen.

PO2 Stanley Aldemita, one of the policemen who arrested Reynes, however, said the accused only made an alibi. Aldemita testified in court that it was Reynes who sold a pack of shabu to a poseur buyer during a buy-bust operation they conducted.

The court ruled that defenses such as an alibi that the police planted the evidence against a suspect could be easily concocted. "To prove such, the evidence must be clear and convincing," Ingles said.

Meanwhile, in a separate case, Ingles acquitted Bryan Alfanta who was accused of having a pack of shabu in his possession when he was arrested at barangay Ermita on September 11, 2004.

Policemen said they arrested Alfanta after they saw him while examining a pack of shabu in his hand at sitio Baho in barangay Ermita.

Ingles, however, said there were some inconsistencies in the statements of the arresting officers wherein they claimed they were the ones who arrested the suspect, when in fact, it was a tanod who made the arrest and turned over the suspect to the policemen.

"It is difficult to believe that somebody can be careless as to examine what can easily be perceived illegal in the presence of lots of people. It is not consistent with the natural behavior of a person committing a crime," Ingles said. - Rene U. Borromeo