House OKs bill amending Dangerous Drugs law
AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill amending the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act in a bid to improve the country’s anti-drug operations.
House Bill 2285 by Iligan City Representative Vicente Belmonte seeks to amend the law’s Section 21, which the author said is too “stringent” and a “hindrance” to the campaign against drugs.
The section tackles the custody and disposition of confiscated and seized drugs and other related equipment.
Belmonte said in the Supreme Court decision “People vs. Pringas,” non-compliance to Section 21 was used to dismiss the pieces of evidence as non-evidentiary. The high court ruled that non-compliance in the case was justifiable.
To avoid the situation that non-compliance may render evidence inadmissible, the bill would provide clearer procedures for the seizure of illegal drugs to preserve its “evidentiary” value, said Belmonte, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs.
Under the measure, non-compliance of the section’s requirements will not render void and invalid the seizures and custody of items if non-compliance is “under justifiable grounds” and the “integrity and evidentiary value of the seized items are properly preserved by the apprehending officer or team.”
The bill also mandates that the inventory of seized items be witnessed by an elected public official with jurisdiction over the crime scene accompanied by any representative from the media or the National Prosecution Service.
It also states that the physical inventory of seized items be held at the place where the search warrant is served, at the nearest police station, or at the nearest office of the apprehending officer or team.
The bill would also expedite the release of certifications of forensic laboratory examinations by mandating that it be issued immediately instead of within 24 hours as stated in the law.
In his explanatory note, Belmonte said some drug cases were dismissed due to failure of law enforcers to follow the law’s strict requirements. He said the conviction rate due to illegal drugs is only 7.30 percent or 8,063 out of 110,494 drug cases filed from 1999 to December 2010.
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