Zero conviction rate in drug cases in 5 provinces alarms PDEA

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is alarmed that there is zero conviction rate in illegal drug cases in a number of provinces in Mindanao.

Based on the “case monitor” conducted by the PDEA, there have been no convictions in drug cases since 2003 in the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao.

PDEA Director General Jose Gutierrez Jr. said this concern was raised during a command conference held at the agency’s headquarters in Quezon City last Thursday.

In an interview late Thursday, Gutierrez said “hundreds” of cases have been filed in these provinces since 2003 and the dismissal of cases has emboldened drug dealers in their activities.

“It’s difficult there because armed groups are operating,” he said.

Making things worse, according to PDEA-Region 9 director Adzhar Albani, is that most of these cases were dismissed due to technicalities.

In Sulu alone, 137 cases have been dismissed since 2003, he said.

Sulu and the other provinces are supposed to be under the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao but these were placed under the jurisdiction of PDEA-Region 9 because of their proximity to the Zamboanga Peninsula.

Albani cited the case of suspects Basig Alag and Denver Kaddam, who were arrested in Jolo, Sulu in 2009 for allegedly selling 48 grams of shabu during a buy-bust operation.

The judge hearing the case dismissed it because the criminal information was not subscribed to by the fiscal handling it, Albani said.

He said the case was supposed to be a “test case” especially that the agency managed to “perfect” the procedures following the arrest, specifically the inventory of the evidence.

Before the arrest of Alag and Kaddam, the PDEA believed the problem lay mainly with the law enforcers “so we made a test case.”

“But it was still dismissed,” Albani said, citing the court ruling in October 2011 dismissing the case due to the non-subscription by the fiscal.

Based on the PDEA’s inventory, the technicalities cited in the dismissal of cases since 2003 involved the non-appearance of other law enforcers (not the PDEA personnel) involved in the operations, and the “non-cooperation” of witnesses during the inventory of evidence.

Gutierrez said the agency’s Legal and Prosecution Service would send a letter to the judge handling the case of Alag and Kaddam to inquire into the dismissal.

Albani bewailed that the dismissal of cases has demoralized law enforcers in the five provinces.

He said the shabu being peddled in these areas are believed to have come from Sandakan in Malaysia, Cotabato, Lanao and Pagadian City.