PDEA chief hails Supreme Court ruling on Alabang Boys

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Dionisio Santiago yesterday hailed the Supreme Court’s decision denying  with finality a petition for the writ of habeas corpus filed by the so-called Alabang Boys in a celebrated drug case filed last year before the Court of Appeals.  

The Supreme Court upheld the CA decision affirming the appellate court’s ruling dismissing the petition for the writ filed earlier by drug suspects Richard Santos Brodett, Jorge Jordana Joseph and Joseph Ramirez Tecson, the so-called Ala-bang Boys. 

Santiago thanked the Supreme Court First Division for the favorable judgment.

The CA’s Special 13th Division, in a decision dated Jan. 30, 2009 ruled in favor of the continued detention of the Alabang Boys, pending the automatic review of the drug trafficking charges by the Secretary of Justice.

Lawyers from the Office of the Solicitor General represented PDEA in the CA proceedings held on Jan. 21 and 27, 2009.

Thereafter, a petition for review on certiorari of the CA decision was filed by the accused through their respective lawyers at the Supreme Court.

However, the High Court stated in the dispositive part of G.R. No. 1899 that “Considering the allegations, issues and arguments adduced in the petition for review on certiorari of the decision and Resolution dated Jan. 30, 2009 and Sept. 29, 2009, respectively, of the Court of Appeals.

‘In CA G.R. SP No. 106830, the Court further resolves to deny the petition for failure of petitioner to sufficiently show that the CA committed any reversible error in the challenged decision and a resolution as to warrant the exercise of this Court’s discretionary appellate jurisdiction.”

Santiago said he is optimistic that this most recent ruling by the highest court in the land brings a brighter ray of hope that the drug trafficking charges against the Alabang Boys, pending in separate regional trial courts, will attain finality in favor of the national anti-drug campaign.