Drug charges filed against two Bacolod residents were dismissed  yesterday.

Bacolod Regional Trial Court Branch  53 Judge Pepito Gellada acquitted accused Sonia Dulla  of charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) and ordered her immediately release from detention.

The police had arrested Dulla on Feb. 18, 2003  and filed charges against her for the alleged sale of shabu in a buy-bust operation.

“The court is not convinced  that an actual buy-bust took place. Sonia Dulla admitted that she was previously charged  for several drug offenses  but all these were eventually dismissed. She turned a new leaf when her husband died of leptospirosis. She had children  and wanted to change for the better and eventually engaged in raising pigs in Concepcion, Talisay City,” the judge said in his decision.

On the other hand, Senior Inspector Clarence Dongail was bent on nailing former drug suspects and, together with Senior Inspector Jimmy Fortaleza, formed a motley group of police operatives, some of whom were not even assigned to his  unit, to carry out the job, the judge said.

“The predilection of Dongail and Fortaleza to conduct clandestine operations was well known and public knowledge in the city as records of their subsequent activities would show,” the judge said.

Dulla was very credible in her story that, no doubt, cast shadows  on the version of the prosecution, he added. The prosecution failed to establish her guilt beyond reasonable doubt, the judge said.

Meanwhile, Bacolod RTC Branch 52 Judge Raymond Joseph Javier dismissed the criminal cases against Remo Laniog Villarna  for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 after finding him not guilty.
He was also ordered released from detention.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency had accused him of selling and possession of shabu  on Dec. 11, 2009.
The court is uncertain that the shabu purchased and recovered  from Villarna  on Dec. 11, 2009 by the PDEA  were indeed the same dangerous drugs  brought to the crime laboratory, the judge said.*CPG

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