DOJ to Marcelino: Best to explain defense in court

The Department of Justice on Friday stood by its decision to revive the drug possession case against Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino, a known intelligence operative who was arrested in a raid in Manila last January.

Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon, chief of the DOJ's Anti-Illegal Drugs Task Force, said Marcelino's defense that he was doing surveillance work when he was nabbed, along with a Chinese national, during the raid would be best proven before the court.

Marcelino and Chinese national Yan Yi Shou alias Randy tried to extricate themselves from liability by claiming that their presence in the house in Sta. Cruz, Manila on January 21 was merely to verify if it was a shabu laboratory and to inform the authorities if their verification would turn positive.

Both men asserted that they were fufilling a lawful duty at the time of their arrest, where anti-narcotics agents seized nearly 77 kilograms of shabu.

"The burden of proving justifying circumstances, such as lawful performance of duty lies with the party that invokes it. Since respondents Lt. Col. Marcelino and Yan Yi Shou are invoking the defense of performance or fulfilment of a lawful duty or in the lawful exercise of a right or office, such defense is better off ventilated during trial," stated the resolution prepared by Assistant State Prosecutor Alexander Suarez and approved by Fadullon.

Marcelino, a former head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency's Special Enforcement Service, has said he would challenge his indictment before the Manila Regional Trial Court as he maintained his innocence over the charges leveled against him.

The Marine officer is being represented by the Public Attorney's Office, which is expected to question the reversal of the DOJ's previous resolution dismissing the complaints.

The DOJ junked the drug complaints last May but the Philippine National Police and PDEA succeeded in reinstating the charges for possession of dangerous drugs against Marcelino and Yan, which were filed before the court on Tuesday. — RSJ, GMA News