Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 15) — A court in La Union dismissed the drug charge against Julian Ongpin, son of business magnate and former Trade Secretary Roberto Ongpin, over the procedural lapses of responding officers.
The La Union Regional Trial Court Branch 27 on Monday said it is “constrained to dismiss the case for lack of probable cause to issue a warrant of arrest” against the billionaire’s son.
Last month, the Department of Justice filed a non-bailable case of possession of illegal drugs against Ongpin after authorities retrieved 12.6 grams of cocaine in a hostel in San Juan, La Union. It was the room he shared with his supposed girlfriend, painter Bree Jonson, who was found dead.
Ongpin also later tested positive for cocaine use.
In junking the case, Judge Romeo Agacita Jr. cited local police’s failure to comply with some procedures as mandated by law.
For one, the prohibited drugs must immediately be marked individually to prevent the switching, planting or contamination of evidence, something Agacita said was not followed by members of the police’s Scene of the Crime Operation (SOCO).
“Worse, the prosecution never tried to offer any explanation of the absence of the required individual markings on the seized plastic sachets in the inventory form,” the decision read. “This singular instance of noncompliance alone jeopardized the chain of custody.”
The ruling also noted that the officers processed the hostel room without the presence of Ongpin who, at that time, was brought by the police to the hospital for medical examination.
It added there was no insulating witness, like representatives from the media, the Department of Justice, or any elected public official, to sign and be given copies of the inventory of seized items.
In their joint affidavit dated Nov. 5, members of the SOCO team argued that their non-observance of the protocols was justified on a number of grounds. For one, they said they were dispatched particularly to investigate the discovered body of Jonson, and not the illegal drugs.
They said they confiscated the “white powdery substance” to examine them in relation to the death of Jonson “and not because the items are suspected to be dangerous drugs.”
However, the La Union court said the argument was without merit.
It said the rules on seized drugs “cannot be brushed aside as a simple procedural technicality, or worse, ignored.”
It stressed that the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that strict adherence to the procedures is mandatory as a safeguard to “the possibility of contamination, alteration, or substitution — whether intentional or unintentional — and even planting of evidence.”
With the criminal charge dismissed, the court also lifted the precautionary hold departure order issued against Ongpin last month.
