A Regional Trial Court judge yesterday acquitted a businessman accused of possessing a sachet of suspected shabu when nabbed in a stakeout operation in Purok Sigay, Brgy. 2, Bacolod City, for reasonable doubt and insufficiency of evidence.

Judge Edgar Garvilles of RTC Branch 47, yesterday dismissed the charges for violation of sec. 11 of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drug Act of 2002 against Jose Estandarte Treyes who was arrested by a Bacolod drug operative for alleged possession of a sachet of shabu in Brgy. 2 on Aug. 16, 2003..

The judge ordered the cancellation of the Summit Guaranty and Insurance Company Inc. bond of P60,000 put up for the provisional liberty of Treyes.

He also ordered the confiscation of the sachet of shabu being an illegal drug, in favor of the State and for it to be turned over to the Philippines Drugs Enforcement Agency for immediate destruction.

PO2 Charlie Sebastian, operative and investigator of the City Anti-Drugs Special Operations Task Group headed by then Ins. Jonathan Lorilla conducted a "stake out" operation in the interior part of Brgy. 2 where they arrested Treyes in possession of a sachet of suspected shabu.

Treyes said he and his (tire) broker Reynaldo Villaflor were walking toward the interior of Brgy. 2 where he had a prospective buyer when three persons caught and poked their guns at him and arrested him, court records said.

He said he was brought to Police Precinct 2 with five others also arrested where a policeman showed him a plastic sachet of suspected shabu that he denied to be his.

Without sufficient admissible evidence against the accused, prosecution witness Sebastian's testimony failed to establish his guilt of the offense with moral certainty, Garvilles said.*DMG

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