3 acquitted of drug raps due to ‘‘mishandled’’ evidence

MANILA, Philippines—A Manila court has acquitted three people of drug charges in separate cases for failure of arresting officers to prove that the drugs presented as evidence were the very same ones seized from the accused.

Judge Caroline Rivera-Colasito of the Manila Regional Trial Court’s Branch 23, in three separate decisions issued on June 10, said gaps in the chain of custody of the evidence had weakened the cases of the prosecution.

The judge said illegal drugs are open to tampering and substitution, whether by accident or deliberately. Thus, evidence must show that the illegal drugs presented in court were the same substances recovered from the suspects. The chain of custody records the movement of seized items and dispels doubt about the integrity of the evidence.

Acquitted were Charize Cerillo for possession and use of illegal drugs, Oscar Lazaro for selling and possession, and Mark Narro for possession of illegal drugs.

Cerillo was arrested on July 23, 2011, after a guard at Manila City Jail who was searching visitors found a plastic sachet allegedly containing shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) in her wallet. JO1 Joy Arga brought Cerillo to the duty investigator’s office where the evidence was marked.

The court said the jail officer did not include who was present during the confiscation and how the substance was handled from the place of arrest to the jail investigation unit where the evidence was turned over unmarked. No evidence was presented on the charge of use of illegal drug.

Lazaro was arrested in a buy-bust operation on Blumentritt Street in Manila on Nov. 27, 2009, according to SPO1 Mauro Castro Cruz. In his defense, Lazaro said the police came to his house looking for his nephew. He was brought to the police station and when he couldn’t point to his nephew’s whereabouts, he was slapped with the drugs charges.

The court said evidence must be marked immediately after confiscation in the presence of the accused, a representative from the media, the Department of Justice or an elected official, which the police failed to comply with.

Narro was arrested in Binondo, Manila, on Oct. 15, 2011, during a police surveillance operation in the area. He was passing by when policemen stopped him and found in his possession a plastic sachet allegedly containing shabu. PO2 Michael Carabeo said they proceeded to the District Anti-Illegal Drugs office where the evidence was marked.

The accused, however, said he was just waiting for a friend at a jeepney stop when he was suddenly accosted. As he had no shirt on at the time, he assumed it was why he was arrested.

The court noted that the evidence was not marked at the site of arrest and there was no clear proof that it was handed directly to the forensic chemist who examined it at the crime laboratory.