A MAKATI court has dismissed the drug case against a rapper, his sister, and staff filed by the Makati police in 2019 due to the failure of the police to secure the presence of the required witnesses during the arrest.
Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 64 granted the demurrer to evidence, essentially a motion to dismiss due to insufficiency of evidence, filed by Marlon “Loonie” Peroramas.
Makati police caught Loonie in a buy-bust operation in the parking lot of a hotel in Makati City on September 18, 2019, supposedly selling 15 sachets of marijuana to a police poseur-buyer.
Arrested with Loonie were his sister Idyll Liza Peroramas and one of his staff, David Rizon.
They were charged with selling illegal drugs under Section 5 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 (Republic Act 9165).
The Makati RTC, however, found that the police failed to strictly follow the chain of custody requirement under Section 21 of the law, which requires the presence of an elected public official and a representative of the National Prosecution Service or the media, who will serve as witnesses.
“It is incumbent upon the prosecution to account for these witnesses’ absence by presenting a justifiable reason therefore or, at the very least, by showing that genuine and sufficient efforts were exerted by the apprehending officers to secure their presence,” according to Judge Gina Bibat-Palamos.
“In the case at bar, there was no evidence presented or there was even no attempt to justify the absence of an elected public official and a DOJ representative during the buy-bust operation,” she added.
Loonie, who had earlier been released on bail, is now studying the possibility of filing counter charges against the police involved in the drug operation, based on a post on his Facebook page.(ABS-CBN News)
