Valdez v People, G.R. No. 170180 [Case Digest]

 

Valdez v People,

G.R. No. 170180

Facts:

            Bautista was conducting the routine patrol along the National Highway together with companions when they noticed petitioner, lugging a bag, alight from a mini-bus. The tanods observed that petitioner, who appeared suspicious to them, seemed to be looking for something. They thus approached him but the latter purportedly attempted to run away. They chased him, put him under arrest and thereafter brought him to the house of Barangay Captain where he, as averred by Bautista, was ordered by Mercado to open his bag. Petitioner’s bag allegedly contained a pair of denim pants, eighteen pieces of eggplant and dried marijuana leaves wrapped in newspaper and cellophane. RTC and CA find the accused guilty of the crime charged.

 

Issue:

            Whether or not the search which yielded the alleged contraband was lawful.

 

Held:

            NO. It is obvious that based on the testimonies of the arresting barangay tanod, not one of these [Rule 113, Sec. 5 of the Rules of Court] circumstances was obtaining at the time petitioner was arrested. By their own admission, petitioner was not committing an offense at the time he alighted from the bus, nor did he appear to be then committing an offense. The tanod did not have probable cause either to justify petitioner’s warrantless arrest.