The court has acquitted a suspected drug pusher from three drug charges due to the inconsistencies in the testimonies of the police over his arrest four years ago, saving him from possibly spending the rest of his life in jail.
Regional Trial Court Judge Soliver Peras absolved Edmund Go from the charges of drug pushing, drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia as he found the testimony of the arresting officer doubtful.
Go was allegedly arrested in a buy-bust operation conducted by the members of Punta Princesa Police Station on April 16, 2003 in barangay Tisa.
SPO4 Joselito Palang testified that he received reports of the illegal drugs trade in sitio Kangitngit, Tisa, prompting him to conduct a surveillance operation.
Palang said they immediately conducted the buy-bust operation against Go, which resulted to the arrest of the suspect when he turned over a plastic pack of shabu to a police undercover agent. Upon conducting a body search, another pack of suspected shabu and a tooter was recovered from Go’s possession.
Go denied the charges, saying he was only in the area to look for the motorcycle that was offered to him for mortgage. While the court found Go’s defense saddled with several inconsistencies, Peras said the prosecution should not draw strength from the weakness of the defense.
According to Peras, the prosecution should rely on the strength of its own evidence, which it miserably failed. Peras pointed out the police’s failure to properly mark the evidence allegedly seized from Go, which the court found it unbelievable for Palang to have missed having already in the police service for more than 20 years.
Peras added that it is also impossible for the accused to have sold shabu to a person whom he did not know in broad daylight.
He ordered for the release of Go and have the two plastic packs of shabu confiscated in favor of the government. - Fred P. Languido/LPM