G.R. No. 207993 , January 21, 2015
People of the Philippines, Appellee, vs. Gerardo Enumerable y De Villa, Appellant.

FACTS

An Information dated August 27, 2004, charged appellant Gerardo Enumerable y De Villa with violation of Section 5 of Republic Act No. 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) for the illegal sale of 9.88 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) contained in three plastic sachets to a police poseur-buyer on May 27, 2004, at a gasoline station in Lipa City. Appellant pleaded not guilty. The prosecution presented two witnesses: PO3 Edwalberto Villas, who acted as the poseur-buyer, and Police Inspector Danilo Balmes. Appellant waived the presentation of defense evidence. The trial court found appellant guilty beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced him to life imprisonment and a fine of ₱500,000. The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction. The prosecution’s evidence established that a buy-bust operation was conducted using marked money, resulting in appellant’s arrest and the seizure of the drugs. PO3 Villas marked the seized sachets at the place of arrest and turned them over to the duty investigator at the police station on the same day. The request for laboratory examination of the specimens was made on May 27, 2004, but the Batangas Provincial Crime Laboratory endorsed the request and specimens to the Regional Crime Laboratory in Calamba City only on June 4, 2004, where Forensic Chemist Donna Villa P. Huelgas found them positive for shabu. During trial, PO3 Villas testified that he did not know who had custody of the specimens from the time he turned them over to the duty investigator on May 27 until their submission to the crime laboratory on June 4, nor who brought them there.

ISSUE

Whether the prosecution established the identity and integrity of the confiscated illegal drug, the corpus delicti of the offense, through an unbroken chain of custody.

RULING

No. The Supreme Court granted the appeal and acquitted appellant based on reasonable doubt. The Court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove an unbroken chain of custody of the illegal drug, which gravely compromised its identity and integrity. In prosecutions for illegal sale of dangerous drugs, the identity of the drug must be established beyond reasonable doubt, and the chain of custody rule requires testimony about every link in the chain from seizure to presentation in court. Here, there was a glaring gap in custody from May 27, 2004, when PO3 Villas turned over the seized sachets to the duty investigator, until June 4, 2004, when they were submitted to the Regional Crime Laboratory. The prosecution presented no evidence on how the drugs were stored, preserved, or labeled during this period, nor who had custody. PO3 Villas explicitly stated he had no knowledge of who had custody or who brought the specimens to the laboratory during this interval. The prosecution’s attempt to fill this gap through PO3 Villas’s testimony on a memorandum he did not prepare was insufficient. The stipulations made during pre-trial regarding the existence of the specimen and the chemistry report did not relate to or cure the break in the chain of custody. Consequently, the corpus delicti was not proven, warranting acquittal.