Four men cleared of drug charges
Four suspected drug pushers and users were acquitted by Regional Trial Court executive judge Fortunato de Gracia Jr. because he did not believe the testimonies of the policemen that he described them as “unbelievable and fabricated only to fit their ulterior motives”.
After the court ruled that the accused are not guilty of the criminal charges filed against them, De Gracia ordered the immediate release of Ronald Sencil, Carlos Silabay Reynaldo Cellan and Andrew Tad-y from jail.
PO3 Ismael Gandionco of the now-defunct Vice Control Section claimed that both Sencil and Silabay were arrested while in the act of having a pot session inside a room of a hotel along
Gandionco claimed that he and his fellow officers rushed to the hotel after they received a call from an informer that there were persons sniffing shabu in one of the hotel rooms.
The police said when they went inside the hotel, they saw two men who were later identified as Silabay and Sencil taking turns sniffing shabu. The door to their room was reportedly ajar, allowing lawmen to see what they were doing.
But Sencil, a native of
According to Sencil, before he was arrested, he was taking a bath inside the hotel room and when he went out, he was surprised to see the daughter of the pimp already inside the room rummaging through his drawer, then showed to him a tin foil.
He stepped out of the room only to see Gandionco and fellow policeman Paquito Monterroyo together with a woman whom he had met a few days ago. The policemen then entered the room and accused him of possession of illegal drugs.
After he was brought to the office of the Vice Control Section he was asked if he had a companion and he called Silabay, his cousin, with the instruction of the police to see him in his hotel room.
The policemen then escorted him back to the hotel, and when Silabay arrived, he was also arrested while he was still in the lobby.
De Gracia said he is convinced that the policemen “falsified and prevaricated and reinvented the facts to suit their ulterior motives.”
Sencil said his wallet containing P50,000 and a wedding ring were taken from him by his arresting officers.
Quoting a recent Supreme Court ruling, De Gracia said while “drug addiction is one of the most pernicious evils that has ever crept into our society, equally reprehensible is the police practice of using the law as a tool in extorting money from hapless victims.”
Meanwhile, Cellan and Tad-y were arrested last
Elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency claimed that before the arrest of the two accused, they were monitoring them for three hours.
De Gracia did not believe the testimony of the police because it was found out during the trial that there was no buy-bust operation conducted and the PDEA agents even went inside the house without a search warrant.
De Gracia also found out that aside from Cellan and Tad-y, there were four other persons arrested together with them, but it was not mentioned in their report.
“All the foregoing, does not inspire belief in the verity of the version of the police officer and could only instill a cloud of doubt in the culpability of the accused,” De Gracia ruled.
Meanwhile, lack of funds, slow prosecution of cases and few trained men to do the right job is hampering the campaign against illegal drugs.
These are the things that House vice chairman on the committee on dangerous drugs, Cebu City South District Rep. Antonio Cuenco said needs to be ironed out with the help of the executive department.
Cuenco who was the guest speaker in yesterday’s Anti-Illegal Drugs OB (order of battle) Workshop and Intelligence Summit held at the Lahug Waterfront Hotel and Casino said there is a need for more funds to totally eradicate drug traffickers.
He said, just recently President Gloria Arroyo approved the increase of funds through the General Appropriations Act for PDEA and Dangerous Drugs Board from less than P300 million to nearly P900 million, wherein PDEA has the larger chunk reaching up to more than P750 million and the rest is for the DDB.
But despite this, Cuenco said the agency still needs P5 billion to fund its operation and recruitment of new members in order to have a well-trained operatives to ensure also that all its cases filed would result to convictions of drug suspects.
Other than this, Cuenco also blamed the slow prosecution of cases that in spite of the effort of the law enforcement units and the gravity of the penalties mandated by the RA 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, more and more individuals are hooked into illegal drugs, may they be drug users or drug traffickers. — Rene U. Borromeo and Edwin Ian Melecio /BRP
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