People vs.

Andaya
G.R. No. 183700 | October 13, 2014

Tickler: Confidential informant was not presented as witness

Doctrine: To secure the conviction of the accused who is charged with the illegal
sale of dangerous drugs as defined and punished by Section 5, Article II of Republic
Act No. 9165 (Comprehensive Drugs Act of 2002), the State must establish the
concurrence of the following elements, namely:

(a) that the transaction or sale took place between the accused and the poseur-
buyer; and
(b) that the dangerous drugs subject of the transaction or sale is presented in
court as evidence of the corpus delicti.

Facts: In the evening of December 16, 2002, a police asset conducting surveillance
of Pablito Andaya arrived at the police station where police officers Alea, Lopez,
Mercado, and Marasigan were stationed. Said asset reported that he had arranged
to buy shabu from Pablito. A team was constituted to conduct a buy-bust. Two
pieces of P100.00 bills both duly marked X were recorded in the police blotter. Alea
gave the marked bills to the asset. Upon reaching the designated place, the team
members alighted from their vehicles and occupied different positions where they
could see and observe the asset. The asset knocked on the door of Pablitos house.
Pablito came out. Pablito and the asset talked briefly. The asset gave Pablito the
marked money. The asset received something from appellant. The pre-arranged
signal signifying consummation of the transaction was given. The team members
approached Pablito and the asset, introduced themselves as police officers and
arrested accused. He was brought to the police station. The arrival of the team was
recorded in the police blotter. The merchandise handed by accused to the asset was
sent to the Regional Crime Laboratory in Camp Vicente Lim. The specimen was
positive for methampethamine Hydrochloride (shabu), a dangerous drug.

SPO2 Lopez received the person of the accused, the marked money and the item
accused handed to the asset. Lopez prepared the request for laboratory
examination. He also prepared the documents required for filing of the case with the
Public Prosecutor. SPO2 Danilo Mercado recorded the marked bills in the police
blotter before the buy-bust. Upon the teams return, the marked money and the
merchandise from accused were turned over to SPO2 Mercado. He prepared a
complaint sheet. Thereafter, he turned over accused and the evidence to the Police
Investigator. SPO4 Protacio Marasigan received a written request for laboratory
examination of the subject merchandise. He brought the request to the crime
laboratory in Laguna. Jupri Delantar, a Forensic Chemical Officer in Camp Vicente
Lim conducted the examination. The merchandise tested positive for shabu.

Defense: Andaya denied the charge. He stated that on the said evening, he was at
home watching TV with his family when police officers arrived. When he opened the
door, a police officer poked his gun at him. Somebody else held a long firearm.
Pablito was handcuffed and brought outside. He refused to negotiate and asked for a
warrant. The policemen searched the house, turned over the beddings and
uncovered their furniture. No gun nor shabu was found. Pablito was brought to the
police station and detained. After three days he was released. He received a
subpoena from the Public Prosecutor afterwards.

Crime Charged: Violation of Section 5 (Sale, Trading, Administration, Dispensation,

RTC: Convicted Andaya as charged, penalty of life imprisonment

Basis: The buy-bust operation is supported by the police blotter wherein not only
was the departure and arrival of the operatives have been duly recorded but also the
two (2) pieces of marked one hundred peso bills. The arrest of the accused was
made after the police asset had given the prearranged signal outside his house. The
marked money was recovered from the very hand of the accused while the deck of
crystalline substances given to the asset upon the latters handing over to the
accused the marked money has been turned over to the police by the asset. The
crystalline substance when examined at the police crime laboratory was found to
contain a dangerous and prohibited drug.

CA: Affirmed in toto the conviction

Issue: Did the CA err in affirming the conviction of Andaya?

SC: Yes. In every criminal prosecution, it is the State, and no other, that bears the
burden of proving the illegal sale of the dangerous drug beyond reasonable
doubt. This responsibility imposed on the State accords with the presumption of
innocence in favor of the accused, who has no duty to prove his innocence until and
unless the presumption of innocence in his favor has been overcome by sufficient
and competent evidence.

Proof of the transaction must be credible and complete. Here, the confidential
informant was not a police officer. He was designated to be the poseur-buyer
himself. It is notable that the members of the buy-bust team arrested Andaya on the
basis of the prearranged signal from the poseur-buyer. The prearranged signal
signified to the members of the buy-bust team that the transaction had been
consummated between the poseur-buyer and Andaya. However, the State did not
present the confidential informant/poseur-buyer during the trial to describe how
exactly the transaction between him and Andaya had taken place. There would have
been no issue against that, except that none of the members of the buy-bust team
had directly witnessed the transaction, if any, between Andaya and the poseur-buyer
due to their being positioned at a distance from the poseur-buyer and Andaya at the
moment of the supposed transaction.

The CA did not find anything wrong or odd in the nonpresentation of the poseur-
buyer as a witness against the accused. In fact, it justified the nonpresentation as
follows: Appellant also questioned the failure of the prosecution to present the
informer. The court is aware of the considerations why confidential informants are
usually not presented by the prosecution. There is the need to hide their identity and
preserve their invaluable service to the police. In People v. Lopez, it was held that
there was no need for the prosecution to present the confidential informer as the
poseur-buyer himself positively identified the accused as the one who sold to him
one deck of shabu. The trial court then properly relied on the testimonies of the
police officers despite the decision of the prosecution not to present the informer.

The foregoing justification by the CA was off-tangent and does not help the States
cause. It is obvious that the rulings cited to support the need to conceal the
confidential informants identities related to the confidential informants who gave
information against suspected drug dealers. The presentation of the confidential
informants as witnesses for the Prosecution in those instances could be excused
because there were poseur-buyers who directly incriminated the accused. In this
case, however, it was different, because the poseur-buyer and the confidential
informant were one and the same. Without the poseur-buyers testimony, the State
did not credibly incriminate Andaya.

Indeed, Section 5 of Republic Act No. 9165 punishes any person, who, unless
authorized by law, shall sell, trade, administer, dispense, deliver, give away to
another, distribute, dispatch in transit or transport any dangerous drug, including
any and all species of opium poppy regardless of the quantity and purity involved, or
shall act as a broker in any of such transactions. Under the law, selling was any act
of giving away any dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential
chemical whether for money or any other consideration while delivering was any act
of knowingly passing a dangerous drug to another, personally or otherwise, and by
any means, with or without consideration.17 Given the legal characterizations of the
acts constituting the offense charged, the members of the buy-bust team could not
incriminate Andaya by simply declaring that they had seen from their positions the
poseur-buyer handing something to Andaya who, in turn, gave something to the
poseur-buyer. If the transaction was a sale, it was unwarranted to infer from such
testimonies of the members of the buy-bust team that what the poseur-buyer handed
over were the marked P100.00 bills and that what Andaya gave to the poseur-buyer
was the shabu purchased.

Another mark of suspicion attending the evidence of guilt related to the reliance by
the members of the buy-bust team on the prearranged signal from the poseur-buyer
because:

1. the record does not show what the prearranged signal consisted of
2. the reliance on the supposed signal to establish the consummation of the
transaction between the poseur-buyer and Andaya was unwarranted because
the unmitigatedly hearsay character of the signal rendered it entirely bereft of
trustworthiness

Decision: WHEREFORE, the Court REVERSES and SETS ASIDE the decision
promulgated on February 11, 2008; ACQUITS accused Pablito Andaya y Reano for
failure to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt; and ORDERS his immediate
release from confinement at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.