Prosecutor meted 18 years for lost shabu

The tables have been turned on a prosecutor, who was convicted by the Sandiganbayan or losing evidence entrusted to him.

This as the government's anti-graft court yesterday sentenced Cebu City assistant prosecutor Rosendo Brillantes to 18 years imprisonment after he was found guilty for the disappearance of the 248 grams of shabu that was part of the evidence against a detained suspected drug pusher.

The Sandiganbayan's Fourth Division headed by Associate Justice Gregory Ong convicted Brillantes of the charges for violating Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code, or malversation of public property, but cleared him of the anti-graft charges.

Aside from the imprisonment, the anti-graft court also ordered Brillantes to pay a fine of P223,380 - the amount equivalent to the cost of the missing shabu - and to suffer perpetual special disqualification.

The shabu that was lost while in the custody of Brillantes in 2001. The drugs were allegedly confiscated by police from drug suspect Allan Arriesgado, who was later acquitted of the case.

Brillantes recalled that he had placed the shabu inside the steel cabinet of his office after fellow prosecutor Rustico Paderanga turned the evidence over on November 17, 2000 when the latter went on a sick leave.

The records of the case showed that after the police seized the shabu from Arriesgado, it was submitted to the PNP Crime Laboratory Service for examination.

When medical technologist Jude Daniel Mendoza testified before the court on September 22, 2000, he turned over the evidence to Paderanga, who was then assigned as the trial prosecutor of RTC branch 14.

Brillantes was designated to take over Paderanga's duties when the latter's application for leave of absence was granted.

Brillantes said he wanted the drugs deposited with the evidence custodian of the city prosecutors' office, but had to bring it back to his office when the custodian told him that she has no safe and that the office lock is defective.

Paderanga testified before the anti-graft court that when he turned over the shabu to Brillantes, he advised the latter to take care of it because it involves a prominent personality. Allan is a son of Ma. Luisa Tabar Arriesgado, who is consider as the shabu queen of Cebu by the police. Brillantes was only five days on the job when he received the drugs. He joined the service on Nov 12, 2000.

Brillantes said it is the government, which should be blamed and held answerable for the loss of the shabu, because of the lack of equipment, but the anti-graft court rejected his argument.

He also said that the acquittal of Arriesgado was not because of the failure of the prosecution to present the seized illegal drugs, but it was because the policemen have failed to correctly identify the exact location where the shabu was allegedly found.

Brillantes was earlier cleared by a committee created by then city prosecutor Vicente Mañalac for the reason that anybody can just easily enter the cubicles of the assistant city prosecutors.

Mañalac accepted the explanation of Brillantes that due to the refusal of the evidence custodian to accept the shabu for safekeeping, he had no alternative but to place the shabu inside the cabinet at his office.

But the anti-graft court ruled that Brillantes had the duty to safely keep the subject shabu since he had custody of the evidence.

The decision read, "failure on his part to exercise the required degree of diligence under the circumstances to properly and safely keep the subject shabu, given his status as a public prosecutor, as well as the obvious importance of the subject shabu, not only in connection with the criminal case but also with respect to the ineffable effects should the same fall in the wrong hands, would of necessity give rise to a finding of negligence."

The Sandiganbayan justices said although Brillantes may have attempted to transfer custody of the shabu to the evidence custodian, the refusal of the custodian to accept them should have alarmed him and he should have brought the matter to the attention of the city prosecutor.

"We are left with no other recourse but to hold that accused Brillantes, through negligence, effectively allowed another person to take the subject shabu," the anti-graft court justices ruled.

Brillantes said he would file a motion for reconsideration of the decision, and if denied, he will bring the matter to the Supreme Court.

Brillantes yesterday quickly put up a P45,000 bail to avoid jail pending the resolution of his appeal.