Lawyer nabbed for marijuana in pocket at Cebu airport

CEBU CITY — A lawyer was arrested for bringing marijuana at the Mactan Cebu International Airport on Friday.

Lawyer Caesar Antonio Tabotabo, 55, was caught when the airport’s body scanner detected the contraband on the lawyer’s pockets.

The dried marijuana leaves were placed inside a crumpled cigarette box.

Tabotabo declined to issue a statement to the media.

But Leia Albiar-Alcantara, spokesperson of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, said Tabotabo claimed that the dried marijuana leaves were part of the evidence he got from a client.

“Accordingly, it (dried marijuana leaves) was owned by his client and he (Tabotabo) allegedly forgot to return it,” Alcantara told the Inquirer.

Tabotabo is now under hospital arrest upon the recommendation of his doctor.

Meanwhile, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ (IBP) Cebu City Chapter was surprised about Tabotabo’s arrest.

“We are saddened of this current incident that a member of the legal profession was implicated in this case,” said lawyer Regal Oliva, IBP Cebu City Chapter president.

“We just hope that Atty. Caesar Tabotabo will be accorded due process and we hope that the full arm of the law will be enforced to get into the bottom of this,” added Oliva.

Edited by LZB