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| NEWS > 17 January 2007 |
Other related articles:
Half police drivers whose chas
Only half of police drivers involved in high-speed chases that ended in death or serious injury were fully trained in pursuit, an official watchdog reported yesterday.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said that police officers took “unnecessary risks” when chasing suspects. “There is a fine balance to be struck in controlling crime by dealing with someone who is driving recklessly, and increasing the risk to public safety by engaging in dangerous high-speed pursuit,” the IPCC’s report concluded.
“If an officer decides to pursue someone there is the risk that... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Catanduanes Tribune - Virac,Ph
17 January 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Court drops drug case due to p
The Regional Trial Court dismissed the case against three alleged drug pushers after the Philippine National Police failed to present on the witness stand a lawman who had access to the evidence.
RTC Branch 42 Presiding Judge Genie G. Gapas-Agbada threw out the case filed against Giovannie Lucero Sarmiento and Maria Elisa Arcilla Urbano for failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The dismissal came when the Court granted the Demurrer to Evidence filed by Ms, Urbano on the ground that the prosecution failed to establish the chain of custody of the seized illegal drug.
Prosecution evidence showed that on Sept. 16, 2003, RTC Branch 43 Judge Romulo P. Atencia issued a search warrant commanding the police to search for shabu on the persons and residences of the two accused as well as Garibaldi Sarmiento in Gogon Sirangan, Virac.
During the search conducted in the evening of Sept. 24, 2003, Virac police chief Gil Francis Tria, PO2 Arlan Sevilla, PO1 Merwin Lingcaso and PO2 Bernardo Penero, accompanied by barangay chair Ma. Rosario Arcilla and four other barangay officials, found a plastic sachet of shabu at the anahaw roof of the house and a coin pouch containing four more sachets outside the window of Sarmiento and Urbano. The team also found sniffing paraphernalia.
After PO2 Penero listed the items, the police arrested the duo as well as Vedasto Tabuzo, who was inside at the time, to the provincial police office. Two days after, Tria, Sevilla, Lingcaso and barangay tanod Jerry Camacho executed affidavits regarding the search, with the case filed against the trio for violation of Republic Act 9165.
Records show that then Chief Insp. Tria delivered the five sachets of suspected shabu to the PNP Regional Crime Laboratory at Camp Simeon Ola on Sept. 30, with the lot examined and yielding positive result for methamphetamine hydrochloride.
In deciding the case, Judge Gapas-Agbada said the prosecution failed to prove that the chain of custody of the prohibited drug was never broken from the time of seizure up to the moment it was offered in evidence.
She noted that the prosecution failed to show what happened to the confiscated items or who were in possession of the same for six (6) days after it was confiscated from the accused on Sept. 24, 2003 until they were delivered to the PNP Crime Lab on Sept. 30.
The prosecution, the Court said, failed to answer the following questions: Who were the persons in possession of the confiscated items after they were seized from the house of the accused? Who else had access to the five (5) sachets from the time they were listed by PO2 Penero? How and when did PCINSP Tria get hold of the specimen examined by PSI Macura Clemen? Who entrusted the substance to him? For how long was he in possession of the evidence before he turned them over to the PNP Crime Laboratory?
It added that the questions, which it said will remain unanswered as PO2 Penero was not presented to the witness stand, should be answered satisfactorily to determine whether the integrity of the evidence was compromised in any way.
"The Court detests drug addiction in our society but it has a duty to protect the accused where the evidence presented show insufficient factual nexus to hold him criminally liable," Judge Gapas-Agbada emphasized.
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