He was as slippery when agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency bagged him for a drug offense 15 months ago in Loon town. Booked for a non-bailable crime, the high value target whom lawmen tagged as a drug lord, escape imprisonment when his lawyer succeeded in bailing him out to the tune of P500,000. Punching holes in the way the arresting officers carried out the buy-bust operations, lawyer Alexander Lim of the Trabajo-Lim Law Office, zeroed in on the bungled apprehension giving him compelling arguments for the client to post bail for his temporary liberty. Even before he was placed behind bars, the elusive suspect sought hospitalization claiming to have been afflicted with hypertension. Now, he is laughing all the way to freedom for good, when he was acquitted in the same drug charges after a Regional Trial Court found him not guilty of the crime charged. In a 17-page decision, RTC Branch 48 Presiding Judge Pablo R. Magdoza acquitted drug suspect Benjamin Sherwin Bautista y Lofranco of violation of Sec. 5, Article 2 of Republic Act No. 9165, otherwise known as the Dangerous Drugs Act.

Bautista allegedly, sold to a poseur-buyer two heat sealed transparent plastic packs containing a total weight of 13.13 grams in the amount of P60,000 during a buy-bust operation conducted by the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency on September 8, 2011 in Loon, Bohol. The confiscated illegal substance weighing more than five grams and the crime of drug pushing being unbailable crime would have ended Bautista’s career as a drug peddler and rot in jail for the rest of his life. But on December 23, 2011, two days before Christmas, Bautista was set free by the court, finding that the evidence of guilt was not strong. The court granted accused Petition for Bail and set the amount of P500,000 for his temporary liberty. The prosecution paraded an array of witnesses who included PDEA Cebu regional agents led by Director Levi Sotelo Ortiz, PChief Insp. Pinky Sayson-Acog, PO3 Rolex P. Tamara, IO3 Jose Feliciano Bersales and IA1 Baby V. Rallos.

THE BUY-BUST OPERATION

At about 2:45 in the afternoon of September 8, 2011, PDEA agents led by Ortiz organized an entrapment operation against Bautista in Loon town near the Holy Name Funeral Homes, assisted by elements of the Philippine Army 2nd Special Forces Battalion stationed in Carmen town to assist in the operation. Using four vehicles - two for the PDEA operatives and two for the Special Forces, the team positioned themselves near the Loon Municipal Hall. Bautista allegedly arrived riding on a motorcycle and the confidential agent introduced the poseur buyer, PDEA agent Labajo as the one interested to buy shabu worth P60,000. The transaction proceeded with Bautista receiving the money from Labajo and turning over two big packs of shabu. Bautista had with him several persons riding in motorcycles who encircled the three poseurs confidential PDEA agents during the transaction. The same motorcycle-riding men remained after the deal warning the PDEA poseurs (Labajo, Bersales and the confidential agent) not to use their cell phones as Bautista went away escorted by two motorcycle driving men. No arrest was effected that moment of the alleged transaction and team leader Ortiz ordered his men to regroup.

Bautista was later on arrested by the PDEA team, assisted by the army soldiers, while watching a motocross competition, an event for the town fiesta celebrated that day. The team did not recover anything from suspect Bautista. Even the alleged buy-bust money was not found in his possession. The arrested suspect Bautista was brought to the Tagbilaran PDEA office, but stopping for a while at the Loon Police Station to blotter the arrest. Arriving at the PDEA Tagbilaran office at about 6:30 pm, an inventory of the seized items was conducted and the Certificate of Inventory was prepared by Labajo and signed by representatives from the media, DOJ and a barangay official of Poblacion 2, Tagbilaran City. The specimen, two large size plastic sachets containing suspected shabu was received by the Bohol Crime Laboratory only at 12:46 the following morning of September 9, 2011. On cross examination, IO1 Labajo testified that he cannot recall how many PDEA agents were involved in the operation but said there were more than six agents and when pressed further, he said there were not more than 15 agents and not more than 15 army men. Labajo was corroborated by another prosecution witness IO1 Jose Feliciano Bersales on some points, but he said he did not participate in the inventory of the illegal drugs which was conducted by Labajo inside the PDEA office and he did not know what time the inventory was finished. Another witness, IA1 Rallos said he did not see the alleged buy-bust against accused Bautista because he was 30 or 50 meters away and inside the municipal hall of Loon, further saying that team leader Ortiz was not also present because he was inside the vehicle.

Team leader Ortiz, who was then Deputy Regional Director of PDEA -7 also testified on some matters covered by the testimony of Labajo but he testified that the team was not able to confiscate anything from suspect Bautista. Common witness for the prosecution, (for the prosecution and the defense) PO3 Rolex Tamara, a provincial police officer assigned at the Provincial Public Safety Company (PPSG), Camp Dagohoy testified that he personally knew Bautista because the latter had been a police asset for many years who helped the police in the arrest of drug personalities and that Bautista was even a PDEA asset before he became a police asset. That in the buy-bust operation conducted by the provincial police against a PDEA agent, Steven Valles, which resulted to the latter’s arrest and detention, Bautista was the one who acted as the poseur-buyer. PO3 Tamara said he believed that the case against Bautista is a revenge on the part of PDEA because of his participation in the buy bust operation against PDEA agent Valles. Another common witness mediaman Willy Maestrado of DyRD said when he arrived at the PDEA office, the inventory was already finished and he was later shown two packs of shabu, and that he did not know where they came from and he was not present when the other witnesses signed the inventory sheet in the evening of September 8, 2011.

DEFENSE

In his defense testimony, Bautista said that at 1 o’clock in the afternoon of Sept. 8, 2011 he was already at Cogon Norte, Loon to participate in a motocross competition under the Expert Category and was practicing to orient himself of the area. When the competition was about to start at 4:00 pm, somebody shouted “dapa” and he saw more or less 15 PDEA agents, all armed forced him to lie down, twisting his arm, handcuffed him and arrested him and brought him to the PDEA office in Tagbilaran City. About 50 army men also acted as back-up in a military vehicle. No inventory was conducted immediately upon his arrival at the PDEA Tagbilaran office. That he did not see the packs of shabu and had not met the supposed poseur buyers, PDEA agents. Accused Bautista denied there was a buy-bust operation conducted against him near the Holy Name Funeral Homes in Loon in the afternoon of Sept. 8, 2011, in effect denying he sold “shabu” for a consideration of P60,000. He insisted that PDEA agents are concocting stories against him as a retaliation because he participated as poseur-buyer in a buy-bust operation conducted by the provincial police against PDEA agent Steven Valles assigned at the PDEA Region 7 office, resulting to arrest on August 5, 2011 for selling dangerous drugs shabu worth P85,000.

COURT FINDINGS

To determine whether there was a valid entrapment or whether proper procedures were undertaken in effecting the buy-bust operation, it is incumbent upon the Court to make sure that the details of the operation are clearly and adequately established through relevant, material and competent evidence. In the court decision, it said that the evaluation of the evidence on record, in its totality, exposes flaws in the prosecution’s evidence, which raise doubts as to its claim of a buy-bust operation. Noted was the incompetence to testify of team leader Ortiz on the fact since he did not actually witness or see the actual transaction. The court also finds unbelievable the testimonies of IO1 Labajo, and I03 Bersales as to the details and what transpired during the buy bust operation. In particular, the court finds it rather incredible the reason proffered by the prosecution that they were not able to apprehend accused immediately because off the presence of motorcycle riding men. The Court said how could they be prevented or intimidated when by their own admission, there were more than 15 armed PDEA agents and 15 heavily armed military men present and involved in the operation? In criminal cases, it is the burden of the prosecution to establish the guilt of the accused and prosecution must not rely on the strength of its evidence and not on the weakness of the defense. Bautista was acquitted, his bail bond cancelled and released with the findings of the Court that the prosecution failed to establish guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt of the crime charged.