Judge defends drug acquittals

While Regional Trial Court executive judge Fortunato de Gracia Jr. is an anti-drug crusader, he said he cannot convict persons for violation of the dangerous drugs law if the evidence presented against them fails to prove their guilt.

De Gracia, who used to be a retired police colonel and head of the PNP legal service before he joined the judiciary a few years ago, made the clarification in reaction to complaints by some policemen who described him as “no longer a friend of the law enforcers”.

“Grabeha g’yod hinuon ka estrikto ni judge De Gracia batok sa mga polis.  Gamay’ng deperensiya sa among testimonya sa korte, pilde na mi sa among kaso nga gipasaka batok sa among mga dinakpan,” a police officer who is assigned to a drug enforcement unit said.

Only last Friday, De Gracia promulgated the decisions of 12 drug-related cases and all of the accused —except for four suspected drug users who jumped bail— were all acquitted of their charges and were ordered released from jail.

But De Gracia explained that being a judge, he cannot simply convict persons accused of violating the dangerous drugs law if evidence is lacking and asked the law enforcers to follow with the proper rules on how to arrest a person and to search their persons and premises as provided for under the Rules on Criminal Procedures.

In some instances, De Gracia found out that the police violated the rules by not allowing the owners of houses or the subject of the search warrants to witness the search of their premises.

De Gracia reminded the policemen that only if the owners of the house are not present that the raiders may look for another two witnesses of good moral characters in that place, particularly the barangay officials.

Six more drug suspects had been acquitted by De Gracia for failure of the prosecution to establish their guilt beyond reasonable doubt, meaning they will be released from detention unless they have other pending cases.

These were Marcelo Lopez, Ade Urtezuela, Sofronio Reyes, Darafe Ygot, Eduardo Sabayton and Virgilio Mendoza.

In the case of Lopez, the court believes that the family of the accused was compelled to resort to an “extra-legal remedy” just to send him to jail because of his behavior being a violent troublemaker.

De Gracia also gives more credence to the testimonies of Urtezuela that he was not among those persons in a pot session chased by the policemen, but he was only arrested after he ran away from a nearby store after one of the policemen fired a warning shot.

Of all the five suspects accused by the police of doing pot session, it was only Urtezuela who appeared in all the hearings of their cases, while the four others had jumped bail.

Reyes was also arrested by the police and was accused of keeping 16 grams of shabu that was recovered from a house in Guadalupe that he reportedly, but it was proven that the house was owned by his sister.

The accused was able to present evidence that at the time of the raid on August 14, 2004, Reyes was already residing in Borbon town.

Meanwhile, Mendoza was also acquitted by the court because De Gracia refused to believe that he was arrested while selling shabu to the police officers whom he said are well-known in their area because they always patrol their place.

For his part, Ygot was accused of possession of drug paraphernalia for sniffing shabu, after she was illegally searched during a saturation drive conducted in barangay Tejero in September 10, 2006.

The police said they subjected Ygot to a search because her actions were so strange and suspicious, but De Gracia said the court discourages such practices.     — Rene U. Borromeo/BRP