Court junks case vs honeymooner caught with bullets at airport
The Kalibo, Aklan Regional Trial Court Branch 6 has dismissed the criminal case filed against a young couple caught carrying bullets at the Caticlan airport last April.
In an order dated Wednesday, the Kalibo Court has granted the motion to quash information filed by the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) on behalf of Jerome Sulit.
The court said the information or charge sheet and the affidavits failed to state that Sulit has an intent to possess or to carry the ammunition.
“From the definition of ammunition, it is specifically stated that is is for ‘use in any firearm’ which was not alleged in the information. Hence, the facts charge do not constitute an offense. No complaint will be held to be good if it does not charge an offense that is, accurately and clearly allege all of the ingredients of which the offense is composed,” the court said.
Last April, Sulit and his wife Rochelle were about to board a plane for Manila after spending their honeymoon in Boracay when airport authorities discovered 14 bullets of .22 .cal ammunition inside Sulit’s sling bag.
READ: Honeymooners from Boracay caught with bullets at airport
Sulit denied the allegations. He said only the cargo loader at the airport was able to get near his bag. He maintained that they are law-abiding citizens and had never been able to hold any firearm and ammunitions.
The court, in its ruling, said regardless how the bullets came in Sulit’s possession, “the Court believes that there was no intent to possess and to use the bullets on his part. He and his wife are just starting a new phase in their life being recently married; no untoward incident of the same happened on their way from Metro Manila to Boracay. They are aware of the ‘tanimbala’ cases that happened in our airports and have no intention in having firearms or bullets.”
“In the absence of [an intent to possess ammunition] the court finds no probable cause and hereby orders for the dismissal of the instant case against accused Jerome Sulit,” the court said. RAM
