10 years after his arrest: Nursing student cleared of drugs

 CEBU, Philippines -  Ten years after his arrest for possession of illegal drugs, a graduating nursing student was finally acquitted of the charges because of the prosecution’s failure to establish his guilt with proof beyond reasonable doubt.

 Thomas Saso was then 23 years old when arrested by Cebu City policemen on November 20, 2000 in Barangay Duljo.

Saso, according to the arresting policemen, was arrested in a buy-bust operation wherein one of the arresting policemen posted as a poseur-buyer of the 0.025 gram of shabu sold by the accused for P100.

 Saso was then charged for violation of Section 15, Article III of Republic Act 6425 and on December 12, 2008, the lower court found him guilty. He was sentenced to suffer a penalty of imprisonment up to two years.

Assisted by his legal counsel, Vicente E. Fernandez II, Saso elevated the case to the Court of Appeals (CA), wherein it rendered a judgement last August 18, 2010 reversing the lower court’s decision.

 CA Associate Justice Agnes Reyes-Carpio, in her 11-page decision, found weak and unreliable the testimonial evidence of the prosecution’s witnesses. For her, the prosecution “miserably” failed to prove the guilt of the accused.

 “If the prosecution fails to discharge the burden of proving the guilt of the accused by proof beyond reasonable doubt, then it is not only the right of the accused to be freed by the court but it is the court’s Constitutional duty to acquit him,” the CA decision reads.

 The CA added that the consummation of the alleged buy-bust operation, as well as the sale, was not clearly established.

 “The objective test in buy-bust operations demands that the details of the purported transaction must be clearly and adequately shown,” the decision reads.

 SPO3 Joselito Palang and SPO3 Raymund Rodriguez testified during trial that Saso resisted arrest after the consummation of the sale and ran inside a small room, wherein a certain George Gimeno was caught holding a tin foil with traces of white crystalline susbtance and other shabu paraphernalia.

  Saso and Gimeno were both charged of the same crime.

Saso defended that around 7:00 in the evening of November 20, 2000 he was inside Gimeno’s house playing darts and around 7:30 in the evening, radio broadcaster Emmanuel Mantilla arrived to deliver fertilizers intended for Saso’s mother for their plantation.

 While Mantilla was about to hand over to Saso the said fertilizers, a commotion occurred and Saso saw armed men trying to grab his hands. He was then taken to the Punta Princesa Police Station and was detained. He later learned that those who arrested him were policemen.

 Palang testified that it was him who marked the plastic packets seized from Saso while Rodriguez testified it was PO2 Edgar delos Santos who marked it. Palang also testified that the shabu was received by him from Saso during the buy-bust operation while Rodriguez said the shabu was recovered in a search by Palang.

 “We find the testimonies of prosecution witnesses, Palang and Rodriguez filed with several material inconsistencies thereby rendering it not only improbable but also incredible thus substantially affecting their credibility,” read the CA decision.      (FREEMAN NEWS)