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People vs. Beran

A police informant tipped off authorities that an individual named Beran was selling shabu. Police conducted a buy-bust operation where the informant posed as a buyer. Beran was arrested but claimed he was alone in his house when police arrived and forcibly arrested him. The court found the chain of custody over the alleged drugs to be broken, as police admitted to marking the drugs several kilometers away from the arrest, without Beran present. As such, the court acquitted Beran due to the failure of police to follow proper procedures under the law for drug cases.

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140 views1 page

People vs. Beran

A police informant tipped off authorities that an individual named Beran was selling shabu. Police conducted a buy-bust operation where the informant posed as a buyer. Beran was arrested but claimed he was alone in his house when police arrived and forcibly arrested him. The court found the chain of custody over the alleged drugs to be broken, as police admitted to marking the drugs several kilometers away from the arrest, without Beran present. As such, the court acquitted Beran due to the failure of police to follow proper procedures under the law for drug cases.

Uploaded by

John Dexter Fuentes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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USA College of Law

Alparaque 1-F
Case Name Seng Kee & Co.People vs. Beran
Topic Police PowerSearch with Warrant
Case No. | Date G.R. No. 203028 January 15,2014
Ponente J. Reyes
Evidentiary procedure of illegal drugs in a buy-bust operation or with a search warrantTest of
Doctrine
Valid Ordinance

FACTS
 An informant went to the police and gave a tip that a certain Beran is selling shabu
 The police and the informant went to proceed on the buy-bust operation and the informant posed as the
poseur-buyer
 PO3 Sia and the informant went to meet Bernan who was standing near a “poso”
 As they were buying the alleged shabu, PO3 Sia touched his hair signaling the rest of the team to swarm on
Bernan
 Bernan on his defense denied the allegation
 He asserted that while he was resting alone upstairs in his house
 Five policemen arrived and ordered him to come with them
 He resisted and asked why they were arresting him, but without apprising him of his constitutional rights
they handcuffed and forcibly boarded him in an owner-type jeep and brought him to the Headquarters.
 There, two of his arrestors, PO3 Francia and PO3 Sia, demanded from him the amount of ₱20,000.00 in
exchange for his release without any charge. But he could not produce the amount they asked, and they
trumped up a charge against him of illegal sale of shabu
ISSUE: W/N the arrest of Bernan is valid
RULING:
No.
There is a broken chain of custody.  R.A. No. 9165 provides that to properly preserve the integrity and
evidentiary value of the illegal drugs seized pursuant to a buy-bust operation, or under a search warrant,
the following procedures shall be observed by the apprehending officers, to wit:
(a) Xxx the physical inventory and photograph shall be conducted at the place where the search warrant is
served; or at the nearest police station or at the nearest office of the apprehending officer/team, whichever
is practicable, in case of warrantless seizures; Provided, further that non-compliance with these requirements
under justifiable grounds, as long as the integrity and the evidentiary value of the seized items are properly
preserved by the apprehending officer/team, shall not render void and invalid such seizures of and custody
over said items.
Here, none of the other witnesses of the prosecution could corroborate the culpatory narrative of PO3 Sia at any
of its material points to create the successive links in the custody of the seized drug. In seizures covered by search
warrants, the physical inventory and photograph must be conducted in the place where the search warrant was
served. It needs no elaboration that the immediate marking of the item seized in a buy-bust operation in the
presence of the accused is indispensable to establish its identity in court. PO3 Sia admitted that he marked the
sachet of shabu only at the DAID-WPD precinct, several kilometers from the buy-bust scene, as well as impliedly
admitted that Beran was not then present. Indeed, none of the buy-bust team attested that they saw him take
custody of the confiscated shabu and later mark the sachet at the DAID-WPD office.

DECISION
Joselito Beran is ACQUITTED.

NOTES:
In drug cases, it is important that the apprehending officers should follow the procedural requirements under R.A.
No. 9165, non-compliance with these requirements will render the evidence used as inadmissible. However, under
justifiable grounds, as long as the integrity and the evidentiary value of the seized items are properly preserved by
the apprehending officer/team, shall not render void and invalid such seizures of and custody over said items

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