Regional Trial Court Branch 58 Judge Gabriel Ingles yesterday acquitted a woman from drug charges after the prosecution has failed to prove that she was in possession of a pack of shabu during her arrest last year.
Ingles ordered the release from detention of 36-year-old Evangeline Dela Cruz, a resident of Villagonzalo Street in barangay Tejero, ruling that there is no valid reason to convict her because the police were not sure whether the evidence really came from her.
The records of the case showed that SPO2 Conrado Rocamora and other policemen were conducting surveillance operation against illegal drug personalities along Villagonzalo Street when he sighted a man and a woman exchanging small plastic packs.
Believing that the white powder inside the plastic packs were shabu, Rocamora hurriedly approached the two persons, but the man quickly fled, leaving behind the woman who happened to be Dela Cruz.
Rocamora then saw a plastic pack of shabu on the ground in front of Dela Cruz that prompted him to arrest the woman and charged her in court for violating Section 11 of Republic Act 9165.
But Dela Cruz has other version of her arrest. She claimed that the policemen just went to her house to look for their fellow police officer named James dela Cruz - who is her cousin - but added that she was surprised when they placed her under arrest.
The court ruled that “it is very obvious that both police officers do not have any personal knowledge of how officer Rocamora supposedly recovered the evidence from the accused.”
When asked by the defense counsel where the pack of shabu came from, police officer Rocamora just replied: “I do not know where it came from because at the time when one of the two suspected persons handed something, I immediately got hold of them.”
But Ingles ruled: “In fine, the testimony of the arresting officers are not sufficient to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the pack of crystalline substance containing a dangerous drug came from the actual or even constructive possession of the accused.” — Rene U. Borromeo/LPM