Final vindication

The recent acquittal by the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City of one of the so-called Alabang Boys earlier charged with violation of the Comprehensive Anti Drug Abuse law comes in the heels of another similar acquittal of other “Alabang Boys” by the Regional Trial Court of Muntinlupa.   

When we dismissed their cases after undergoing preliminary investigation about four years ago during my incumbency as Chief State Prosecutor for insufficiency of evidence, I and our prosecutors were immediately branded as coddlers of drug lords. My reputation and that of our prosecutors handling the cases were pilloried in the media on the mere suspicion and which later turned out to be malicious and unfounded accusations and innuendoes floated by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. Our prosecutors were unfairly suspended and in my case I had to go on voluntary leave for about a month while undergoing an embarrassing inquiry.

After a rigorous investigation on our purported misconduct in the dismissal of the case, the special investigating body created by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo found nothing irregular or anomalous in the way the cases was handled and disposed of. We were then even subjected to a humiliating inquiry by the House of Representatives even already presumed guilty only to be vindicated later.

Today, more than four years ago, comes the final vindication from a malignant and baseless suspicion — not once but twice with resounding vigor, that the PDEA evidence against these Alabang boys cannot stand the meticulous gaze of truth.