BACOLOD City – A former village chief of Barangay 35 charged with illegal drug sale was released from jail in light of a plea bargaining agreement.
Manuel “Maui” Huelar Jr., charged in 2016, was freed from the Metro Bacolod District Jail (MBDJ) Male Dormitory in Barangay Handumanan on Dec. 14, the jail warden, Senior Inspector Norberto Miciano Jr., told the press on Wednesday.
Huelar was charged with violation of Section 5 (selling of illegal drugs) of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. He then applied for plea bargaining.
He pleaded guilty during a re-arraignment. The court then lowered the charge to just two counts of violation of Section 12 (illegal possession of drug paraphernalia) of the law, Miciano said.
Huelar, a former player for Negros Slashers in the Metropolitan Basketball Association, was sentenced to a prison term of one year and eight months.
The MBDJ received from the Regional Trial Court Branch 44 the order to release Huelar just last week, said Miciano.
At the time, however, Huelar has already overstayed at the MBDJ Male Dormitory, the jail warden said.
As part of the plea bargaining deal, Huelar shall be subject to one-year drug counseling / outpatient rehabilitation and a spot urine drug test within a year after his release.
His compliance with the agreement will be checked after a year.
Miciano admitted that there was no illegal possession of drug paraphernalia charge filed against Huelar but said they cannot question the decision of the court.
Huelar was arrested by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency operatives in a buy-bust operation in an inn in Barangay Singcang-Airport on Nov. 28, 2016.
Two scions of influential families in Negros Occidental – Joshua Roberto Ignacio-Arroyo and Christian Joseph Mijares – were arrested, too.
At the time Huelar was one of the six village chiefs in this city suspected with drug links.
Their names were submitted to the Department of the Interior and Local Government national office, Liga ng mga Barangay president Noli Villarosa disclosed at the time.
May that year, Rodrigo Duterte, who promised to rid the country of illegal drugs in three to six months, was elected president.
His platform became a flagship program of his administration that turned into a widely criticized fatal crackdown, leaving thousands of drug suspects dead./PN
