2 Drug Cases: Former convict guilty, another man acquitted

An ex-convict was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment yesterday for keeping seven packets of shabu, while a man was acquitted from his drug case.

Regional Trial Court Judge Meinrado Paredes found Jerome Daclan, 30, of barangay Tisa guilty beyond reasonable doubt for violating Section 11, Article II of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act and ordered him to pay a fine of P300,000.

In another case, RTC Judge Gabriel Ingles acquitted 64-year-old Jose Lapitan, a resident of Minglanilla town, as he rejected the claims of the policemen that Lapitan’s arrest was legal.

The police claimed that Lapitan was arrested after he sold a pack of shabu to a poseur-buyer, and yielded eight more packs of the illegal drug during a body search.

The court records showed that Daclan was arrested by PO3 Renante Nioda in barangay Tisa in the morning of August 17, 2003 by virtue of a warrant of arrest for a drug case.

When he was bodily searched, Daclan then reportedly yielded an unlicensed handgun and the seven packs of shabu. The case for illegal possession of firearm has been filed in court, but Daclan pleaded guilty to the case.

During trial, Daclan confessed that he was already convicted for selling shabu, aside from his two previous convictions for robbery.

Paredes gave more credence to the testimonies of the arresting officer and rejected Daclan’s accusation that he was only framed up.

Meanwhile, Ingles ruled that the arresting officers of Lapitan failed to prove that they arrested the accused in the act of selling a pack of shabu to a poseur-buyer.

PO2 Roland Camello testified that he and other arresting officers saw Lapitan hand over the pack of shabu to the poseur-buyer from a banana plantation nearby, a claim that was supported by another police officer.

But the accused proved that the arresting officers were just fabricating the story since the photographs of the place where he was arrested showed there were only few bananas.

Ingles also doubted the testimonies of Camello who claimed that he was detailed in Minglanilla for two years and was well known to the public being a policeman. The judge also doubted how he acted as poseur-buyer.

“In this case at bar, this court is not morally certain that indeed the accused was arrested in a buy-bust operation. The propriety of warrantless arrest has not been established in a manner that this court can conclude beyond reasonable doubt that herein accused sold a pack of shabu to PO2 Camello,” Ingles ruled. – Rene U. Borromeo/LPM