Manila court acquits 3 drug suspects

MANILA, Philippines — A Manila court has ordered the release from detention of three persons after they were acquitted of drug charges.

In a two-page order issued last March, the court dismissed the complaint against the suspects, saying it has the obligation to “weed out poorly built up drug-related cases.”

Records showed that the three were arrested on Feb. 16 by six personnel of the Manila Police District in what the lawmen described as an anti-crime operation.

Police said they caught the suspects while in the act of transacting with a drug pusher.

According to the arresting officers, they apprehended the three suspects but the pusher managed to escape.

Police said they confiscated from the suspects plastic sachets containing shabu.

The three underwent inquest proceedings on Feb. 18.

The court, however, dismissed the case against the suspects for lack of evidence.

“First, this court finds unbelievable the allegations of the six policemen that they failed to arrest the pusher who received money from the suspects. Despite their affidavit that they immediately approached the four suspects, they still failed to arrest the pusher, who committed the more serious offense,” the decision read. “This led this court to believe that the police officers who executed the joint affidavit and apprehension complaint were not telling the truth.”

Second, the court said police violated rules on the marking of drug evidence after it noticed the plastic sachets were not marked with the initials of the suspects.

The relatives of one of the suspects sought the assistance of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) as they did not receive any news about the outcome of the inquest proceedings after two weeks.

Documents obtained by PAO showed that the charge sheet was filed by the police only on March 2 and raffled off to a regional trial court branch on March 3.

Under Article 125 of the Revised Penal Code, detained suspects must be delivered to proper judicial authorities within 36 hours for capital crimes or offenses unless they sign a waiver of detention and ask for a preliminary investigation.

In this case, no waiver was signed by the suspects.