By BOY RYAN B. ZABAL
KALIBO, Aklan — Four illegal drug suspects who were arrested last week in Barangay Andagao here have been released due to insufficient evidence to indict them.
The Provincial Prosecutor’s Office dismissed without prejudice for refiling the drug-related charges against them.
“There was no evidence proffered by the police that the respondents present in the boardinghouse were positive for drug use,” Prosecutor Derly Yerro–Inado said in a resolution.
Inado on July 17 ordered the release of the following drug suspects: Jomer Hablero, 28, of Dumarao, Capiz; Quennie Panares, 18, Hablero’s live-in partner; Mike Hilario, 37, of Goding Ramos Street, Barangay Poblacion, Kalibo; and Regie Nabor, 23, of Barangay Estancia, Kalibo.
Operatives of the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Group arrested the suspects during a raid on July 13 in Villa Salvacion in Andagao village.
They claimed to have caught the suspects in the act of sniffing suspected shabu in the boardinghouse of Hablero.
Seized from Panares, Hablero, and Hilario were three sachets of suspected shabu.
The operatives also recovered an aluminum foil strip with traces of suspected shabu, an aluminum tooter, lighters, and an aluminum foil burner.
Jomer Hablero was accused of maintaining a drug den, while the others were accused of illegal drug possession.
They were detained in the Kalibo police station.
But the provincial prosecutor later ruled that there was insufficient evidence to indict the suspects for violations of sections 6 (maintaining a drug den), 7 (visiting a drug den), and 11 (possession of illegal drugs) of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Results of the suspects’ drug test were unavailable during the filing of cases, police said.
The results “could have been the best evidence to prove that the suspects used drugs and that Hablero was actually maintaining a drug den,” Inado said.
She added: “The charge of possession of illegal drugs was absorbed by the charge of visiting a drug den, and there can be no separate offense of possession of illegal drugs apart from visiting a drug den.” (Aklan Forum Journal/PN)
