Muntinlupa court acquits 'Alabang Boys'

MANILA, Philippines -- A Muntinlupa court acquitted today  two members of the "Alabang Boys" from drug trafficking charges due to a technicality.

In a 46-page decision, Judge Juanita Guerrero of Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 204 noted the lapses of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on the custody of the illegal drugs seized from Jorge Joseph and Richard Brodett.

Guerrero said PDEA's buy-bust operation against suspects on Sept. 19, 2008 was "valid", but "the link in the custody of the drug evidence," as required by Section 21 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, "has been broken."

"The failure of the prosecution therefore to establish all the links in the chain of custody is fatal to the case," Guerrero said.

Brodett is a resident of the posh Ayala Alabang Village, while Joseph is the son of radio personality Johnny Midnight. They were arrested for selling 60 pieces of ecstasy worth P750 each to a PDEA agent.

Several grams of cocaine and dried marijuana leaves were also confiscated inside the car of Brodett.

The judge said the testimony of PDEA forensic chemist Rona Mae Aguillon as to when she examined the confiscated drugs and the time the items were presented to the media by then PDEA chief Dionisio Santiago placed the court "in a quandary."

Based on Aguillon's testimony, she started examining the drugs at 12:15 p.m. of Sept. 20, 2008. She said it took her 16 hours to examine it.

But a picture published in the Metro Page of The Philippine Star on Sept. 21 of the same year, on the other hand, showed Santiago presenting the items before the media.

"It must be pointed out that at 2 or 3 p.m. of September 20, 2008, these 60 tablets of ecstasy as well as the other drug evidence have already been transferred to [the] custody of Aguillon, since she finished the laboratory examination of these tablets and the other drug items at 4 a.m. of September 21, 2008," the decision read.

"The court is now in a quandary as to the time when Director Santiago held the ecstasy tablets and other drug items as shown in The Philippine Star photograph taken by [Michael] Amoroso. Was it before the inventory taking or after Aguillon had taken custody of said items?" it added.

Guerrero said the lapses could have been explained had Santiago or team head Major Ferdinand Marcelino was called to testify before the court.

"In this case, the prosecution did not even acknowledge and discuss the reason for the missing links in the chain," the court said.

Lawyer Ronny Cudia of the anti-drug agency for his part said PDEA "will study the decision" before issuing any statements.

'We did our best'

The not guilty verdict was a big upset as the PDEA announced two days before the promulgation that it was expecting a guilty verdict against the two suspects.

The PDEA had recently insisted that the three suspects are among the "top level" drug traffickers in the country and has links with an international drug ring.

Former PDEA chief Dionisio Santiago said in an interview by ABS-CBN News Channel that he was not saddened by the court's decision.

"Still we are not saddened by [the decision]. Hindi kami nalulungkot. At least nakulong (We are not saddened. At least they were jailed)," Santiago said.

He added that the two suspects "know very well what they did" and he is hoping that they have been rehabilitated after being jailed for almost three years.

"If they decide to [return to their old ways], the law enforcement people will be there to pounce on them. If they have been changed because of their experience in jail, well and good," Santiago said.

Santiago, meanwhile, insisted that the PDEA, through its lawyers and the prosecutors assigned to the case, have thoroughly explained the details of the buy-bust operations and they believe that they were able to follow the chain of custody of the evidence.

"We feel we have done our best... We consulted legal luminaries and we were assured by the prosecutor that the case was very strong. What can we do?," he said when asked to comment on the court's verdict.

The case against the so-called "Alabang Boys" had initially been dismissed by State Prosecutor John Resado. However, the prosecutor's Dec. 2, 2008 resolution was questioned by the PDEA.

The anti-narcotics agency accused Resado of taking bribe money from the families of the suspects.

The accusation grew into a full-blown controversy, which led to a hearing by the House of Representatives. The congressional hearings prompted to the issuance of Administrative Order 253 in January 2009, directing the automatic review of the case by the Office of the President on all decisions and resolutions involving the dismissal of drug cases.-- Angelo L. Gutierrez