Policemen told to be careful in their buy-bust operations
Careful, careful.
This was how government prosecutors cautioned the policemen on their buy-bust operations on suspected drug dealers.
Provincial Prosecutor Segundino Ferrer, speaking during the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas (KBP) Forum last Thursday, together with Prosecutor 1 Maria Teresa Porlucas, said if policemen are not careful, suspects can later easily claim that the evidence for their crime was merely planted by the authorities.
Ferrer, at the same time, stressed that prosecutors are the partners and friends of the police force and they should work hand-in-hand to bring those suspected of dealing illegal drugs to justice.
Under the law, the penalty for planting evidence is the same as that of the crime committed, Ferrer emphasized, adding that there have been many cases in the past when so-called buy-bust operations conducted were promptly questioned and denied by the suspects.
Porlucas said among the prerequisites for a legally solid buy-bust operation is a report from a citizen about the suspected drug dealer, surveillance operations within a period of three to seven days, and then a “test-buy” so that the police can take the product for laboratory testing.
“Hindi basta-basta sinasabing buy-bust operation. If those prerequisites were not established before the so-called buy-bust operations by the police officers, then necessarily, we have no other option but to dismiss the case because that is what we call “the evidence therein is what we call the fruit of a poisonous tree,” Porlucas said.
Nonetheless, Ferrer said dismissed drug cases are subject to automatic review by the Department of Justice, as in the case of the ‘Alabang Boys’.—LM
bang Boys’.—LM
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