Court acquits 2 men jailed on drug charges

Two men who were arrested and detained for the past three years at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center for drug possession charges were ordered released yesterday after the court ruled that the prosecution has failed to prove their guilt.

RTC judge Fortunato de Gracia acquitted 29-year-old Deo Supangan, single, of sitio Maharlika in barangay Sambag II, and Jessie Saragoza, 27, married and a resident of F. Flores Street in barangay Pasil.

Policemen arrested Supangan in Sambag II on August 15, 2002 while tanods arrested Saragoza in Ermita on September 8, of the same year.

During a raid against a video karera operation at a house of a certain Dodong Tapayan, PO3 Rogelio Morales caught his neighbor, Supangan, on allegations that the latter was in possession of a small pack of shabu at the time of the raid.

Morales said somebody informed him that Supangan was holding a pack of shabu, accusing the latter of throwing the illegal item when authorities arrived at the place.

The court, however, refused to believe Morales' story. Judge de Gracia wondered instead why the raiding team did not even confiscate its primary object, the video karera, despite catching some people playing the illegal machine at the time.

In the case of Saragoza, Ermita tanods claimed they were conducting a checkpoint at 1:30 p.m. when they saw a small pack of shabu falling from the suspect as he stepped down from a trisikad he was riding.

But Saragoza strongly denied a pack of shabu was seized from him, adding that the tanods arrested him at about 6 p.m. and not 1:30 p.m. as reported.

Saragoza said he went to Ermita to get the dirty clothes of his cousin Liezl, upon the request of his mother who was a laundrywoman.

"The court finds the arrest, a dubious truth, no less, as unlawful and even a wrongful act," Judge de Gracia ruled in acquitting Saragoza. - Rene U. Borromeo