IBP: Judges, prosecutors must not be shamed for validly junking drug cases

Amid reports that there are judges and prosecutors in the government's drug watchlist, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) has warned against publicly shaming officers of the court who reasonably dismiss drug cases and complaints.

While IBP president Abdiel Fajardo urged law enforcement agents not to spare lawyers, prosecutors or judges involved in illegal drugs from prosecution, he said the group "protests drug lists that publicly shame prosecutors who dismiss drug complaints for insufficiency of evidence, and judges who acquit drug suspects on constitutional grounds."

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Aaron Aquino this week revealed that there are judges, prosecutors, celebrities, and even members of the media in its drug watchlist.

Aquino did not name those in the list, which he said has yet to be validated.

Asked for comment, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said he trusts Aquino "had enough factual basis for making that statement." Supreme Court spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Fajardo said that lost cases in prosecutor's offices or in courts must not always be interpreted as drug coddling or protection, as "government agents are not licensed to perverse or relax constitutional standards on buy-bust and search and seizure operations."

"Thus, prosecutors and judges must not be publicly shamed but extolled for pointing out...foibles that invariably come after due proceedings," he said, citing inconsistencies in the testimonies of prosecution witnesses, and arresting officers' failure to follow the chain of custody rule.

He also cited as a defect "unexplained lapses of time between confiscation, marking, inventory and turn-over of drug specimen."

The Supreme Court (SC) has earlier set a mandatory policy for law enforcement agents who conduct drug-related arrests and seizures. The guidelines require compliance to the chain of custody rule — which is written in the dangerous drugs law — and set courses of action if officers fail to comply.

The SC has acquitted a number of drug convicts because their respective arresting officers' failed to justify compliance with the chain of custody rule, particularly the requirement for members of the media and of the Department of Justice to witness the immediate inventory of the seized drugs.

Last year, however, the Court affirmed the conviction of an Irish national caught with less than a gram of marijuana.

In the ruling, the Court said that "[a]s long as the integrity and evidentiary value of an illegal drug were not compromised, non-compliance with Section 21 (1) of R.A. No. 9165 and its IRR may be excused." —KBK, GMA News