DOJ drops drug raps vs. Marcelino, Chinese pal

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has withdrawn the drug charges against Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino and his Chinese companion pending before a Manila court.

This developed after the DOJ granted the petition for review filed by Marcelino and Yan Yi Shou in connection with the September 2016 resolution that led to their indictment for possession of dangerous drugs before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 49.

Dated May 17, the review resolution affirmed the recommendation of Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva on May 23, 2016 to dismiss the complaint for insufficiency of evidence.

Following the release of the resolution, the Manila Prosecutor's Office on Thursday filed a motion asking the court to set Marcelino and Yan free from detention.

Marcelino is currently detained at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City while Yan is detained at Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.

The Public Attorney's Office, whose lawyers represent the accused in the case, said the release order may be released within the day.

Marcelino, a former official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and Yan had asserted that they were only fulfilling their lawful duties at the time of their arrest, when anti-narcotics agents seized nearly 77 kilograms of shabu at a townhouse in Sta. Cruz, Manila on January 21, 2016. 

In the resolution, the DOJ said Marcelino and Yan have sufficiently proven they were in the performance of lawful duty when they were seen by the PDEA and PNP, thus disputing the evidence "purportedly establishing that they are probably involved in the manufacture of illegal drugs, conspiracy in the manufacture thereof, or illegal possession of the same."

Marcelino and Yan cannot also be said to have dominion over the shabu facility since they were there to verify raw information that the place may have dangerous drugs, the DOJ said.

"Clearly, when accused-appellants (Marcelino and Yan) were subjected to body search, the results yielded negative for possession of dangerous drugs. As such, no actual possession may be appreciated on the part of the accused-appellants," the resolution stated.

The DOJ also said Marcelino and Yan were never seen or near the crime scene and that they only arrived two minutes prior to the arrival of the raiding team at the townhouse.

The DOJ previously junked the drug complaints in May last year but the Philippine National Police and the PDEA filed an appeal, which was resolved in their favor by Assistant State Prosecutor Alexander Suarez and Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon last September 15.

As a result, a case for violation of Section 11 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act (Republic Act 9165) was filed with the Manila court.

The case was first raffled off to Judge Felicitas Laron Cacanindin of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 17, but she later inhibited due to her association with former PDEA director general Arturo Cacdac.

Cacanindin said Cacdac is the brother of her best friend in high school.

The judge also said she and Cacdac both hail from La Union and even graduated from the same high school.

The case was then passed on to Judge Daniel Villanueva of the Manila RTC Branch 49. —MDM/KG, GMA News