Drug charges against 4 suspects dismissed

BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

Four drug suspects in Kalibo, Aklan were released after their cases for violations of Comprehensive Dangerous Acts of 2002 were dismissed without prejudice for refilling by Aklan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.

                                                        PHOTO  AKLAN PPO

Jomer Hablero, 28, native of Dumarao, Capiz was charged for allegedly maintaining a drug den in Barangay Andagao, Kalibo, Aklan. 

Hablero’s live-in partner Quennie Panares, 18, and their companions Mike Hilario, 37, of Goding Ramos Street, Barangay Poblacion, Kalibo, Aklan and Regie Nabor, 23, of Barangay Estancia, Kalibo, Aklan also faced charges for possession of illegal drugs and visiting a drug den. 

Operatives from Aklan Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Group (PAIDSOTG) claimed they caught the suspects in the act of sniffing the suspected shabu in the boarding house of Hablero.

Anti-illegal drug police also seized aluminum foil strip with traces of suspected shabu, aluminum totter, lighters and aluminum foil burner during the drug raid last July 13 in Villa Salvacion in Barangay Andagao here.

On July 17, Prosecutor Derly Yerro-Inado ordered the release of the four suspects for insufficient evidence to indict them for violations of Section 6 (maintaining a drug den), Section 7 (visitors of a drug den) and Section 11 (possession of illegal drugs) of Republic Act No. 9165.

“There was no evidence proffered by the police that the respondents present in the boarding house are positive for drug use,” the prosecutor said in her resolution.

Police said the drug test results of the suspects are not available prior to the filing of the cases. 

Inado further stressed “this could have been the best evidence to prove that the suspects who visited the house used drugs and that Hablero was actually maintaining a drug den.”

The prosecutor said “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."

Also recovered from Panares, Hablero and Hilario were three sachets of suspected shabu. 

After their arrest, the four suspects were detained at Kalibo lock-up cells.