House OKs changes in anti-drug law

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives approved yesterday several changes in the law against illegal drugs to prevent a repeat of the dismissal of drug charges against the so-called “Alabang Boys.”

The amendments are contained in a bill introduced by the committee on dangerous drugs chaired by Iligan City Rep. Vicente Belmonte and which the House passed on third and final reading.

“We want to prevent a repeat of the dismissal of charges on technicalities,” Belmonte said.

A Muntinlupa judge threw out the case because arresting officers allegedly failed to comply with the procedures outlined in the law such as the onsite inventory of confiscated illegal drugs.

Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested Richard Brodett and Jorge Joseph in a drug bust in the Ayala Alabang subdivision, where the suspects and their families lived.

A third suspect, Joseph Tecson, was nabbed in a follow-up operation in Quezon City. His case is still pending.

Instead of conducting onsite inventory of the illegal drugs they seized from Brodett and Joseph, as the law requires, the arresting agents towed the suspects’ car to their Quezon City headquarters where the unlawful substances were inventoried in the presence of the suspects and their lawyer.

Belmonte said the amendments approved by the House would allow the physical accounting of seized drugs onsite, at the nearest police station or the nearest office of the arresting officer or team, whichever is practicable.

He said one witness from the media, Department of Justice or an elected official, instead of two witnesses, would be enough for the inventory.

“We are also requiring the filing of administrative charges against public officials or employees who refuse to witness the accounting of seized items,” he said.

He added that the amendments removed the 24-hour deadline for the issuance of a certification on the forensic laboratory examination of confiscated illegal drugs.