BVR & ASSOCIATES
  • HOME
  • OUR SERVICES
  • About
  • Articles
  • LAW
  • CPA REVIEW

a collections of case digests and laws that can help aspiring law students to become a lawyer


​People vs. Sapla, GR No.244045

12/25/2020

0 Comments

 
​People vs. Sapla, GR No.244045
 
Facts:
On January 10, 2014, at around 11:30 in the morning, an officer on duty at the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB) in Tabuk, Kalinga received a text message from an informant (concerned citizen) that an individual will be transporting marijuana from Kalinga to Isabela. PO2 Jim Mabiasan (not the officer who received the text message) then relayed the information to the deputy commander who coordinated with the PDEA.
About 1:00 o’clock  in the afternoon of the same day, a follow up information via text message was received by the RPSB this time detailing the description of the drug courier, to wit: male, wearing collared white shirt with green stripes, red ball cap, and carrying a blue sack; he will be boarding a passenger jeepney bearing plate number AYA 270 bound for Roxas, Isabela.
Based on this information, a checkpoint was organized by the PNP.
At around 1:20 o’clock in the afternoon, the jeepney arrived at the checkpoint and was flagged down. The police officers stopped the jeepney and inside they saw the person described in the text message they received. They approached said person and asked him if the blue sack in front of him was his. The person answered yes. The police officers then requested the person to open the blue sack. The person hesitated but he eventually complied. The content of the blue sack was four bricks of marijuana. The person was later identified as Jerry Sapla.
In court, Sapla denied the allegations as he claimed that when he boarded the jeep, he did not have any sack with him; that the blue sack was only attributed as belonging to him by the police. Sapla was convicted by the trial court. The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and ruled that the informant’s tip was sufficient to engender probable cause upon the minds of the police officers; that it was sufficient to conduct a warrantless search and seizure.
 
ISSUE:
 Whether or not an informant’s tip is sufficient to engender probable cause and police officer may justify the search as consented search.
 
HELD:
No. the Supreme Court has always said that a mere informant’s tip is not sufficient to engender probable cause. The police officer receiving the informant’s tip must rely on his senses. The police officer must not adopt the suspicion initiated by another person. The police officer, with his/her personal knowledge, must observe the facts leading to the suspicion of an illicit act and not merely rely on the information passed on to him/her.
Law enforcers cannot act solely on the basis of a tip. A tip is still hearsay no matter how reliable it may be. It is not sufficient to constitute probable cause in the absence of any other circumstance that will arouse suspicion. The Supreme Court noted that there were two previous decisions (Pp. vs Maspil and Pp. vs Bagista) which ruled that a confidential tip was sufficient to engender probable cause, however, the Supreme Court in this case declared that these two cases are now being abandoned to settle the issue once and for all.
The Supreme Court also found the text message to be double hearsay: (1) the person who actually received the text message was not presented, and (2) the person who received the text message merely relayed it to the officers who conducted the warrantless search and seizure without the latter actually seeing/reading the actual text message. Further, the text message was not preserved. It also appeared that the phone which received the text message was not a government issued one – this belies the claim of the officers that the message was received by their hotline.
Based on the testimony of the police officers, Sapla hesitated when he was requested to open the blue sack. This only means that he did not give his consent and that his compliance was vitiated by the presence of the police.
With all the foregoing, the search and seizure conducted was invalid and any evidence obtained therefrom is inadmissible. Sapla was acquitted. The Supreme Court likewise emphasized the need to adhere to strict standards set by the Constitution otherwise “A battle waged against illegal drugs that tramples on the rights of the people is not a war on drugs; it is a war against the people.” The Bill of Rights  should never be sacrificed on the altar of convenience. Otherwise, the malevolent mantle of the rule of men dislodges the rule of law.
 
Accordingly, accused-appellant Sapla is acquitted and is ordered immediately released from detention. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    March 2018

    Categories

    All
    Agrarian Law
    Articles-of-incorporation
    By-laws
    Constitutional Law
    Criminal Law
    Law
    Persons And Family Relations

    RSS Feed

Copyright Notice
Copyright © – 2020, All Rights Reserved.

Disclaimer
This  project primarily designed to assist students of law  and accounting in their studies. It is merely a tool. The use of our Services does not guarantee success in obtaining a law/accounting degree nor in passing the Bar/Board Exams. We makes no warranties or representations of any kind, whether expressed or implied for the Services provided.
The cases, laws, and other publications found in this site are of public domain, collected from public sources such as the Supreme Court online library. The content however have been heavily modified, formatted, and optimized for better user experience, and are no longer perfect copies of their original. We gives no warranty for the accuracy or the completeness of the materials. We also reserves the right to further improve, add, modify, or remove content with or without prior announcements.
This site also contains materials published by the students, professors, lawyers, and other users of the our Services. These materials are owned by such users and of their sole responsibility. While we may review user-published content, please do not assume that content you are accessing has been reviewed or curated. You may report abusive content through the listed contact details.
We does not guarantee against any loss or damage caused by third persons, delays, interruptions, unavailability, or by the termination of its Services.
We reserves the right to amend the terms and policies for its Services.

Terms of Service
By using our Services, you are agreeing to these terms. Please read them carefully.
Access our Services only through the interface and instructions provided. Do not misuse the Services, or use them in such ways that may interfere their availability, or in ways that may cause discredit to you, your school, or your profession.
These terms do not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights to the content you access on our Services. Do not use content from our Services other than for personal purposes unless you obtain permission from its owner or are otherwise permitted by law. Do not remove, obscure, or alter any legal notices and attributions displayed in or along with our Services.
We may send you service announcements, administrative messages, and other information. You may opt out of some of those communications.
Our Services are designed to be accessible on mobile devices. Do not use such Services in a way that distracts you and prevents you from obeying traffic or safety laws.
We may suspend or stop providing our Services to you if you do not comply with these terms and policies or if we are investigating suspected misconduct.

Privacy
Some services require you to login or register with minimal personal information this site.
Collected Information
Collected information includes user name, email address, Facebook ID and photo. The user may also optionally provide school, year level, BAR year, profession, office, address, and other information which may assist in improving our Services.
Uses of the Information
The collected information will only be used in connection with the use or for the improvement of our Services.
Users Created Content
Content created by users are published and shared for public use. Published content is always attributed to the author through his user account. A user may remain anonymous by changing his "display name" under his profile.
Data Analytics
We conducts data analytics for the improvement of the usability and design of our Services and the user experience. These may include but not limited to tracking time spent on the site, services availed, number of contents created or shared.

Content
Our Services allow you to create casebooks, digests, outlines, notes, and other content. You retain ownership of intellectual property rights that you hold in that content.
When you create content through our Services, you give us (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example: your list of cases, digests, and outlines in your casebooks).
Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.
We reserves the right to review your published content and may remove materials that are offensive, abusive, of no value, or not in line with the purpose of our Services. The amount of content or materials that you publish may be limited by us.
We also used cookies in our website.

Contact Us
  • HOME
  • OUR SERVICES
  • About
  • Articles
  • LAW
  • CPA REVIEW