(Eagle News)—A Makati City prosecutor has junked the charges filed against three lawyers who were arrested at a bar where illegal drugs were recovered in August last year.
In dismissing the charges for constructive possession of illegal drugs, obstruction of justice, and for resistance and disobedience against lawyers Lenie Rocel Rocha, Jan Vincent Soliven, and Romulo Bernard Alarkon, Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Romel Odronia said the police, who acted as complainants, “failed to discharge their burden to prove their factual claims against respondents.”
According to Odronia, contrary to the police’s claims, for instance, Rocha, Alarkon and Soliven had the right to be in the bar as they represented Burton Joseph Server III, one of the bar’s owners.
Odronia said the lawyers’ act of taking pictures and videos therefore “does not constitute any irregularity much less criminal offense.”
“It is their duty to do anything and everything to protect and establish the rights of their client so long that it does not constitute a violation of the law,” Odronia said.
As for the allegations the lawyers interfered with the police’s work when they “searched, touched, and held” evidence, Odronia said this was not proven.
He said based on record, the lawyers entered the bar around 12:30 p.m.
The police, on the other hand, completed the latest inventory receipt at 11:56 p.m.
Odronia also ruled the police’s allegation of constructive possession of illegal drugs as “ludicrous” and “farcical,” saying they “failed to adduce evidence even circumstantial showing that respondents have control or dominion” over the bar or over the recovered drugs.
The resolution was approved by Deputy City Prosecutor Henry Salazar, who signed on behalf of the city prosecutor. With a report from Moira Encina
