Police to appeal junking of drug case vs Julian Ongpin

The Police Regional Office 1 (PRO) on Tuesday said it would ask the trial court to reverse its decision junking the drug case against Julian Ongpin.

"Police Regional Office 1 through its Regional Legal Service is closely coordinating with the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the filing of motion for reconsideration and we commit our full support on this legal remedy," it said in a statement.

The San Fernando City Regional Trial Court Branch 27 on Monday dismissed the case of possession of dangerous drugs due to the police's failure to follow the rule on custody and disposition of seized illegal drugs under Republic Act 9165. 

However, PRO 1 said the court did not consider that the seizure of cocaine was only "incidental" and was not seized during a buy-bust operation.

"The recovery of drug evidence, 126 grams [of] cocaine, was just incidental and to emphasize the police response was not a drug operation," the police said in a statement shared by dzBB reporter Glen Juego.

"Unfortunately, the TC (trial court) did not consider these circumstances that led to the dismissal of the drug case. This is a very uncommon or peculiar case," it added.

The Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division will also conduct a case review to determine the lapses during the police investigation.

"We will investigate how come this case was dismissed based on mishandling of the evidence. We will review, we’ll look at if the procedures were followed,” PNP chief Police Lieutanant General Dionardo Carlos said in an interview.

“If the investigator or evidence custodian failed to follow the procedure, then we’ll make him responsible. We will make him answer for the mistake,” he added.

Ongpin was charged by the DOJ in court last month following a complaint filed by lawmen in connection with the 12 grams of cocaine seized from a room at a beach resort in La Union, where his companion, artist Bree Jonson, was found lifeless in September.

Ongpin, son of businessman Roberto Ongpin, and Jonson had also tested positive for cocaine.

According to the court, the seizure and marking of illegal drugs were not done in the presence of witnesses such as the media, the DOJ, and public officials.

The court stressed that Ongpin was not inside the room at the time the drugs were discovered.

It also said that the inventory of evidence submitted by authorities was not signed by Joselito Niebres, the lone civilian witness. — VBL, GMA News