Case Digest (G.R. No. 236838)
Facts:
People of the Philippines v. Zacarias Lesin Misa, G.R. No. 236838, October 01, 2018, the Supreme Court Second Division, Perlas-Bernabe, J., writing for the Court. The plaintiff-appellee is the People of the Philippines; the accused-appellant is Zacarias Lesin Misa @ "Titing".On March 1, 2015 at about 11:00 p.m., a police team from the Philippine National Police Cebu Police Station, with coordination from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, conducted a buy-bust operation against Misa. The prosecution alleged that two heat-sealed plastic sachets (0.03 g each) were recovered from Misa during the buy-bust and that a subsequent search incidental to his arrest produced five additional heat-sealed sachets (0.03 g each). The seized items were taken to the police station where they were marked, photographed, and inventoried in the presence of Municipal Councilors Raul Butron and Teodoro Mirasol; no representative from the Department of Justice (DOJ)/National Prosecution Service (NPS) or the media was present. The police explained that DOJ/media were "hard to contact" and that they had to meet a 24-hour deadline to submit the evidence to the crime laboratory. The crime laboratory report later tested the samples positive for methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu).
Misa denied the charges, claiming he was buying barbecue with his wife when arrested; he said the police recovered P120.00 and cockfighting devices from him and that he resisted arrest. Informations for Illegal Sale (Section 5, Article II of RA 9165) and Illegal Possession (Section 11, Article II of RA 9165) were filed on March 3, 2015. In a Decision dated June 9, 2016, the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Oslob, Cebu, Branch 62, convicted Misa of both crimes and imposed penalties including life imprisonment and heavy fines. In a Decision dated September 28, 2017, the Court of Appeals (CA) ...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the prosecution comply with the chain of custody and the required-witnesses rule under Section 21, Article II of RA 9165, as amended by RA 10640, and if not, was non-compliance justified?
- Did the prosecution establish the identity of the seized substance with the moral certainty required to convict Misa of Illegal Sale and Illegal Possession under Sections 5 and 11, Arti...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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