Former Caramoran councilor Zaldy Francisco Idanan has regained his freedom after more than three years of imprisonment after the Court of Appeals acquitted him of the crime of possession of illegal drugs on the ground of reasonable doubt.
In a decision issued on April 16, 2024, the CA Third Division chaired by Associate Justice Ramon Bato Jr. granted the appeal filed by Idanan and set aside the December 9, 2020 decision made by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 42 that sentenced him to life imprisonment and to pay a fine of P400,000.
Information filed before the Court stated that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) had monitored Idanan, an Oplan Tokhang surrenderee and drug personality, on three separate days in July 2020 and confirmed through a test buy that he had resumed his illegal drug activities.
Securing a search warrant from the RTC, joint elements of PDEA-Catanduanes led by Intelligence Agent 1 Rodel Abina, PDEA-Camarines Norte, the Catanduanes Provincial Intelligence Unit (PIU), Virac police station and the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) proceeded to barangay Supang on August 4, 2020 and knocked on the door of the Idanan residence at 4:50 AM.
During the search witnessed by barangay kagawads Henry Arcilla Jr. and Roderick Rafael, and media representative Donnie Vic Tabirara, designated searcher Intelligence Officer 1 Norian Torcuator found a black coin purse at the first layer of the wooden shelf at the living room.
When opened, the purse contained three heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets of suspected shabu, which when examined had a total weight of 12.5194 grams.
In his defense, Idanan took the witness stand and presented his wife, Ofelia Idanan, his daughter Maricar and barangay captain Rodelio Riosa as his witnesses.
He tried to impress upon the court that the operatives forcibly entered their house and that the seized drug items were planted.
The couple claimed the law enforcers broke into the house through the main door and that while the family was at the porch, some of the PDEA operatives kept going in and out of the house before the arrival of the barangay officials.
Then RTC Branch 42 Presiding Judge Genie Gapas-Agbada, however, noted that Zaldy and his wife categorically testified that there was no need to break any portion of the main door because it was not locked, with the former saying that he noticed no damage on the surface of the door that morning.
In his appeal, Idanan said, among others, that the RTC seriously erred in failing to consider that the search warrant was improperly issued, its implementation was highly irregular and any evidence obtained should be declared inadmissible.
He pointed out that the records for the application of the search warrant, such as the transcript of stenographic notes, were not presented in evidence, and that even the applicant of said warrant, Intelligence Officer II Michael Consulta, was not presented by the prosecution as a witness in the case.
In its ruling, the appeals court noted that in her decision on the case, Judge Gapas-Agbada, who also issued the search warrant against Idanan, merely made reference to the SW application.
“(T)he deposition of applicant IO II Consulta, or the TSNs of his supposed witnesses cannot be found in the records of this case,” it stressed.
It also said that, more significantly, the testimonies of the PDEA agents and the police officers during the trial never mentioned that an examination was conducted upon IO II Consulta, or his supposed witness/es before Judge Gapas-Agbada issued the search warrant.
“More importantly, it was not disclosed whether IO II Consulta was among those who conducted the surveillance, casing and test buy operations upon appellant,” the CA emphasized.
Thus, it said, there is no sufficient proof from which one could infer that the requisite examination of the applicant, or his supposed witness, was conducted, and from which the factual basis for probable cause to issue the search warrant was obtained.
In its brief, the Solicitor General asserted that the warrant was valid and al the seized items admissible as evidence, arguing that any objection to its legality and admissibility of evidence was deemed waived when no objection was raised by Idanan during trial.
Citing a Supreme Court ruling that compliance or non-compliance with the requirement to raise objections against search warrants during trial cannot in any way diminish the constitutional guarantee that a search warrant should be issued upon a finding of probable cause, the CA Third Division ruled that the appellant must be acquitted.
It may be recalled that six months before the search on his house, then Councilor Idanan survived an ambush by two motorcycle-riding gunmen while he was on his way home aboard his motorcycle from the Caramoran población.