Supreme court ruling: Cops must mark proof taken during operations

The Supreme Court has ruled that policemen should mark the evidence they confiscated from suspected drug pushers and users right after their arrest, otherwise the accused will have the chance of obtaining an acquittal from the charges.

This was the gist in the SC decision, promulgated last March 14, acquitting Sonny Zarraga of Laguna province of drug charges due to the lapses of the authorities in handling evidences.

The SC ruling also said that evidences taken from the suspects must be free from tampering, such that these could not be exchanged with another substance before being submitted for laboratory examination.

The current practice of law enforcers is to mark evidence only after they get back to their station or office from a drug bust operation.

In recent meetings of the Dangerous Drugs Board, it was suggested that illegal drugs and paraphernalia from a drug suspect be placed immediately in the evidence kit, right at the scene of the crime.

This kit should then be sealed with the signatures of the suspect, the arresting officers and witnesses before it is taken to the police station.

In the case of Zarraga, anti-narcotics policemen arrested him in a buy-bust operation in Calamba, Laguna on November 14, 1995 and allegedly seized from him 98 grams of shabu.

Subsequently, the Regional Trial Court convicted him to eight-year imprisonment, which the Court of Appeals eventually affirmed but without the P2-million fine.

Zarraga's lawyer elevated the case to the SC for review claiming that the prosecution failed to establish that the substance earlier presented in the RTC as evidence was the same substance seized from him.

The defense further assailed the conflicting testimonies of the prosecution witnesses, especially on material points, that only raised doubts on Zarraga's guilt.

The prosecution said that at the time Zarraga was arrested, he gave the shabu to the poseur-buyer, who in turn gave it to one of the policemen who also passed it on to another policeman.

The policeman told the court that they wrapped the shabu with a tissue paper then put some markings on its plastic pack but only after they returned to the police station.

SC associate justice Leonardo Quisumbing said the prosecution did not convincingly show that what was submitted for laboratory examination and presented in court was the same substance taken from Zarraga. - Rene U. Borromeo