People vs Delos Reyes [G.R. No. 174774] Case Digest

 

People vs Delos Reyes

[G.R. No. 174774]

 

FACTS:

            SPO1 Lectura related that their office received a telephone call from a confidential informant about an illegal drug deal involving Cocoy, Botong, and Mac-Mac in the vicinity of Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong City on February 17, 2000. SPO1 Lectura was designated as the leader of the team that will bust said illegal drug deal. After the briefing, SPO1 Lectura’s team proceeded to the subject location.

The confidential informant arrived and met SPO1 Lectura’s team at around 3:30 p.m. SPO1 Lectura conducted a short briefing then positioned his team strategically within the vicinity. The confidential informant told the police team that the drug deal would take place between 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. A around 10:00 p.m., the confidential informant identified the suspected drug dealers Botong and Mac-Mac, who were arriving in two cars. After conversing for a moment with Mac-Mac, Botong went inside Whistle Stop Restaurant to talk to Cocoy. Botong and Cocoy then went outside the restaurant and approached another car. Cocoy took a white plastic bag from the car, which he handed to Botong. Thereafter, Cocoy went back inside the restaurant, while "[Botong] proceeded to his car near [Mac-Mac]." SPO1 Lectura was positioned at the other lane of the road, approximately 10 to 15 meters away from the suspects. At that moment, SPO1 Lectura "sensed" that the drug deal had been consummated, so he decided to already arrest the suspects. SPO1 Lectura arrested Mac-Mac, from whom he seized the white plastic bag. PO3 Yumul and PO3 Padpad arrested Botong; and PO3 Santiago apprehended Cocoy. The police team brought the arrested suspects to the police office for investigation. [Same date: February 17, 2000]

            RTC found accused-appellants and Emmanuel de Claro guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime charged.  Accused-movant Emmanuel De Claro is hereby GRANTED and a new one entered, ACQUITTING him of the crime charged.

            Accused-appellants additionally argued that even the prosecution’s version of the arrests of the suspects and seizure of the shabu shows that the same were effected in violation of accused-appellants’ fundamental rights. The arrests were executed without any warrant or any of the exceptional circumstances to justify a warrantless arrest. The suspects, including accused-appellants, were arrested without warrants based on a mere tip from a confidential informant and not because of any apparent criminal activity. A tip does not constitute probable cause for a warrantless arrest or search and seizure incidental thereto. Thus, the shabu allegedly seized from accused-appellants is inadmissible in evidence.

 

ISSUE:

            Whether or not the search and seizure committed by the officers was violative to the constitutional right of the accused against unreasonable searches and seizures.

 

HELD:

            Yes.

 

RATIO:

            Furthermore, even assuming that the prosecution’s version of the events that took place on the night of February 17, 2000 were true, it still failed to establish probable cause to justify the in flagrante delicto arrests of accused-appellants and search of accused-appellants’ persons, incidental to their arrests, resulting in the seizure of the shabu in accused-appellants’ possession.

            As applied to in flagrante delicto arrests, it is settled that "reliable information" alone, absent any overt act indicative of a felonious enterprise in the presence and within the view of the arresting officers, are not sufficient to constitute probable cause that would justify an in flagrante delicto arrest.

            Here, there could have been no valid in flagrante delicto ... arrest preceding the search in light of the lack of personal knowledge on the part of Yu, the arresting officer, or an overt physical act, on the part of petitioner, indicating that a crime had just been committed, was being committed or was going to be committed.

 

It went on to state that —

 

Second, there was nothing in petitioner's behavior or conduct which could have reasonably elicited even mere suspicion other than that his eyes were "moving very fast" — an observation which leaves us incredulous since Yu and his teammates were nowhere near petitioner and it was already 6:30 p.m., thus presumably dusk. Petitioner and his companions were merely standing at the corner and were not creating any commotion or trouble . . .

 

Third, there was at all no ground, probable or otherwise, to believe that petitioner was armed with a deadly weapon. None was visible to Yu, for as he admitted, the alleged grenade was "discovered" "inside the front waistline" of petitioner, and from all indications as to the distance between Yu and petitioner, any telltale bulge, assuming that petitioner was indeed hiding a grenade, could not have been visible to Yu.

 

Clearly, to constitute a valid in flagrante delicto arrest, two requisites must concur: (1) the person to be arrested must execute an overt act indicating that he has just committed, is actually committing, or is attempting to commit a crime; and (2) such overt act is done in the presence or within the view of the arresting officer.70 (Emphases supplied.)

 

Similar to the above-cited cases in Molina, there is a dearth of evidence in this case to justify the in flagrante delicto arrests of accused-appellants and search of their persons incidental to the arrests.