Chain of Custody of Evidence in Drugs Cases
Chain of Custody of Evidence in Drugs Cases
THIRD DIVISION
"x x x.
The appeal is meritorious.
Section 21 of Republic Act No. 9165 provides the procedure to be followed in the seizure and
custody of prohibited drugs, to wit:
Section 21. Custody and Disposition of Confiscated, Seized, and/or Surrendered Dangerous
Drugs, Plant Sources of Dangerous Drugs, Controlled Precursors and Essential Chemicals,
Instruments/Paraphernalia and/or Laboratory Equipment. The PDEA shall take charge and have
custody of all dangerous drugs, plant sources of dangerous drugs, controlled precursors and
essential chemicals, as well as instruments/paraphernalia and/or laboratory equipment so
confiscated, seized and/or surrendered, for proper disposition in the following manner:
(1) The apprehending team having initial custody and control of the drugs shall, immediately
after seizure and confiscation, physically inventory and photograph the same in the presence of
the accused or the person/s from whom such items were confiscated and/or seized, or his/her
representative or counsel, a representative from the media and the Department of Justice
(DOJ), and any elected public official who shall be required to sign the copies of the inventory
and be given a copy thereof;
xxx
The provisions of Article II, Section 21(a) of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of
Republic Act No. 9165 provide:
xxx
(a) The apprehending office/team having initial custody and control of the drugs shall,
immediately after seizure and confiscation, physically inventory and photograph the same in the
presence of the accused or the person/s from whom such items were confiscated and/or seized,
or his/her representative or counsel, a representative from the media and the Department of
Justice (DOJ), and any elected public official who shall be required to sign the copies of the
inventory and be given a copy thereof: Provided, that the physical inventory and photograph
shall be conducted at the place where the search warrant is served; or at the nearest police
station or at the nearest office of the apprehending officer/team, whichever is practicable, in case
of warrantless seizures; Provided, further that non-compliance with these requirements under
justifiable grounds, as long as the integrity and the evidentiary value of the seized items are
properly preserved by the apprehending officer/team, shall not render void and invalid such
seizures of and custody over said items;
xxx
A review of the records establishes that the aforestated procedure laid down by Republic Act No.
9165 and its IRR was not followed. Several lapses on the part of the buy-bust team are readily
apparent. To start with, no photograph of the seized shabu was taken. Secondly, the buy-bust
team did not immediately mark the seized shabu at the scene of the crime and in the presence
of Relato and witnesses. Thirdly, although there was testimony about the marking of the seized
items being made at the police station, the records do not show that the marking was done in
the presence of Relato or his chosen representative. And, fourthly, no representative of the
media and the Department of Justice, or any elected official attended the taking of the physical
inventory and to sign the inventory.
Under the foregoing rules, the marking immediately after seizure is the starting point in the
custodial link, because succeeding handlers of the prohibited drugs or related items will use the
markings as reference. It further serves to segregate the marked evidence from the corpus of all
other similar and related evidence from the time they are seized from the accused until they are
xxx
Otherwise, if the quantity involved is less than the
foregoing quantities, the penalties shall be graduated as follows:
xxx
(3) Imprisonment of twelve (12) years and one (1) day to twenty (20)
years and a fine ranging from Three hundred thousand pesos (P300,000.00)
to Four hundred thousand pesos (P400,000.00), if the quantities of
dangerous drugs are less than five (5) grams of opium, morphine, heroin,
cocaine, or cocaine hydrochloride marijuana resin or marijuana resin oil,
methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, or other dangerous drugs such
as, but not limited to, MDMA or ecstacy, PMA, TMA, LSD, GHB, and those
similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without
having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond
therapeutic requirements; or less than three hundred (300) grams of
marijuana.
The required procedure on the seizure and custody of drugs is embodied in Section 21,
paragraph 1, Article II of R.A. No. 9165, which states:
(1) The apprehending team having initial custody and control of the drugs shall, immediately
after seizure and confiscation, physically inventory and photograph the same in the presence of
the accused or the person/s from whom such items were confiscated and/or seized, or his/her
representative or counsel, a representative from the media and the Department of Justice
(DOJ), and any elected public official who shall be required to sign the copies of the inventory
and be given a copy thereof[.]
This is implemented by Section 21(a), Article II of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of
R.A. No. 9165, which reads:
(a) The apprehending officer/team having initial custody and control of the drugs shall,
immediately after seizure and confiscation, physically inventory and photograph the same in the
presence of the accused or the person/s from whom such items were confiscated and/or seized,
or his/her representative or counsel, a representative from the media and the Department of
Justice (DOJ), and any elected public official who shall be required to sign the copies of the
inventory and be given a copy thereof: Provided, that the physical inventory and photograph
shall be conducted at the place where the search warrant is served; or at the nearest police
station or at the nearest office of the apprehending officer/team, whichever is practicable, in case
of warrantless seizures; Provided, further, that non-compliance with these requirements under
justifiable grounds, as long as the integrity and the evidentiary value of the seized items are
properly preserved by the apprehending officer/team, shall not render void and invalid such
seizures of and custody over said items[.]
Strict compliance with the prescribed procedure is required because of the illegal drugs unique
characteristic rendering it indistinct, not readily identifiable, and easily open to tampering,
alteration or substitution either by accident or otherwise.[4][28] The records of the present case
are bereft of evidence showing that the buy-bust team followed the outlined procedure despite
its mandatory terms. The deficiency is patent from the following exchanges at the trial:
PROSECUTOR [EMERSON TURINGAN]:
Q: After you handed this buy-bust money to the accused, what happened next?
[PO3 ALMAREZ:]
A: When the shabu was already with me and I gave him the money[,] I signaled the two, Captain
Jaime de Vera and SPO1 Balido, sir.
xxxx
Q: After you gave that signal, what happened?
A: Then they approached us and helped me in arresting Felimon Pagaduan, sir.
Q: After Pagaduan was arrested, what happened next?
A: After arresting Pagaduan[,] we brought him directly in Diadi Police Station, sir.
Q: What happened when you brought the accused to the Police Station in Diadi?
A: When we were already in Diadi Police Station, we first put him in jail in the Municipal Jail of
Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya, sir.
Q: What did you do with the shabu?
A: The request for laboratory examination was prepared and was brought to the Crime Lab. of
Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, sir.
xxxx
Q: After making the request, what did you do next[,] if any[,] Mr. Witness?
A: After submission of the request to the Crime Lab.[,] we prepared our joint affidavit for
submission of the case to the Court, sir.[5][29]
From the foregoing exchanges during trial, it is evident that the apprehending team, upon
confiscation of the drug, immediately brought the appellant and the seized items to the police
station, and, once there, made the request for laboratory examination. No physical inventory and
photograph of the seized items were taken in the presence of the accused or his counsel, a
representative from the media and the Department of Justice, and an elective official. PO3
Almarez, on cross-examination, was unsure and could not give a categorical answer when
asked whether he issued a receipt for the shabu confiscated from the appellant.[6][30] At any
rate, no such receipt or certificate of inventory appears in the records.
In several cases, we have emphasized the importance of compliance with the prescribed
procedure in the custody and disposition of the seized drugs. We have repeatedly declared that
the deviation from the standard procedure dismally compromises the integrity of the evidence. In
People v. Morales,[7][31] we acquitted the accused for failure of the buy-bust team to
photograph and inventory the seized items, without giving any justifiable ground for the nonobservance of the required procedures. People v. Garcia[8][32] likewise resulted in an acquittal
because no physical inventory was ever made, and no photograph of the seized items was
taken under the circumstances required by R.A. No. 9165 and its implementing rules. In
Bondad, Jr. v. People,[9][33] we also acquitted the accused for the failure of the police to
conduct an inventory and to photograph the seized items, without justifiable grounds.
We had the same rulings in People v. Gutierrez,[10][34] People v. Denoman,[11][35] People v.
Partoza,[12][36] People v. Robles,[13][37] and People v. dela Cruz,[14][38] where we
emphasized the importance of complying with the required mandatory procedures under Section
21 of R.A. No. 9165.
We recognize that the strict compliance with the requirements of Section 21 of R.A. No. 9165
may not always be possible under field conditions; the police operates under varied conditions,
and cannot at all times attend to all the niceties of the procedures in the handling of confiscated
evidence. For this reason, the last sentence of the implementing rules provides that noncompliance with these requirements under justifiable grounds, as long as the integrity and the
evidentiary value of the seized items are properly preserved by the apprehending officer/team,
shall not render void and invalid such seizures of and custody over said items[.] Thus,
noncompliance with the strict directive of Section 21 of R.A. No. 9165 is not necessarily fatal to
the prosecutions case; police procedures in the handling of confiscated evidence may still have
some lapses, as in the present case. These lapses, however, must be recognized and explained
in terms of their justifiable grounds, and the integrity and evidentiary value of the evidence
seized must be shown to have been preserved.[15][39]
In the present case, the prosecution did not bother to offer any explanation to justify the failure of
the police to conduct the required physical inventory and photograph of the seized drugs. The
apprehending team failed to show why an inventory and photograph of the seized evidence had
not been made either in the place of seizure and arrest or at the nearest police station (as
required by the Implementing Rules in case of warrantless arrests). We emphasize that for the
saving clause to apply, it is important that the prosecution explain the reasons behind the
procedural lapses, and that the integrity and value of the seized evidence had been preserved.
[16][40] In other words, the justifiable ground for noncompliance must be proven as a fact. The
court cannot presume what these grounds are or that they even exist.[17][41]
particularly significant since the seized specimen was turned over to the PNP Crime Laboratory
only after two days. It was not, therefore, clear who had temporary custody of the seized items
during this significant intervening period of time. Although the records show that the request for
laboratory examination of the seized plastic sachet was prepared by Captain de Vera, the
evidence does not show that he was the official who received the marked plastic sachet from the
buy-bust team.
As for the subsequent links in the chain of custody, the records show that the seized specimen
was forwarded by PO3 Almarez to the PNP Crime Laboratory on December 29, 2003, where it
was received by PO2 Dulnuan, and later examined by PSI Quintero. However, the person from
whom PO3 Almarez received the seized illegal drug for transfer to the crime laboratory was not
identified. As earlier discussed, the identity of the duty desk officer who received the shabu, as
well as the person who had temporary custody of the seized items for two days, had not been
established.
The procedural lapses mentioned above show the glaring gaps in the chain of custody, creating
a reasonable doubt whether the drugs confiscated from the appellant were the same drugs that
were brought to the crime laboratory for chemical analysis, and eventually offered in court as
evidence. In the absence of concrete evidence on the illegal drugs bought and sold, the body of
the crime the corpus delicti has not been adequately proven.[20][44] In effect, the
prosecution failed to fully prove the elements of the crime charged, creating reasonable doubt on
the appellants criminal liability.
Presumption of Regularity in the Performance of Official Duties
In sustaining the appellants conviction, the CA relied on the evidentiary presumption that official
duties have been regularly performed. This presumption, it must be emphasized, is not
conclusive.[21][45] It cannot, by itself, overcome the constitutional presumption of innocence.
Any taint of irregularity affects the whole performance and should make the presumption
unavailable. In the present case, the failure of the apprehending team to comply with paragraph
1, Section 21, Article II of R.A. No. 9165, and with the chain of custody requirement of this Act
effectively negates this presumption. As we explained in Malillin v. People:[22][46]
The presumption of regularity is merely just that a mere presumption disputable by contrary
proof and which when challenged by the evidence cannot be regarded as binding truth. Suffice it
to say that this presumption cannot preponderate over the presumption of innocence that
prevails if not overthrown by proof beyond reasonable doubt. In the present case the lack of
conclusive identification of the illegal drugs allegedly seized from petitioner, coupled with the
irregularity in the manner by which the same were placed under police custody before offered in
court, strongly militates a finding of guilt.
We are not unmindful of the pernicious effects of drugs in our society; they are lingering
maladies that destroy families and relationships, and engender crimes. The Court is one with all
the agencies concerned in pursuing an intensive and unrelenting campaign against this social
dilemma. Regardless of how much we want to curb this menace, we cannot disregard the
protection provided by the Constitution, most particularly the presumption of innocence
bestowed on the appellant. Proof beyond reasonable doubt, or that quantum of proof sufficient to
produce moral certainty that would convince and satisfy the conscience of those who act in
judgment, is indispensable to overcome this constitutional presumption. If the prosecution has
not proved, in the first place, all the elements of the crime charged, which in this case is the
corpus delicti, then the appellant deserves no less than an acquittal.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, we hereby REVERSE and SET ASIDE the May 22, 2007
Decision of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CR-H.C. No. 01597. Appellant Felimon Pagaduan y
Tamayo is hereby ACQUITTED for failure of the prosecution to prove his guilt beyond
reasonable doubt. He is ordered immediately RELEASED from detention unless he is confined
for another lawful cause.
Let a copy of this Decision be furnished the Director, Bureau of Corrections, Muntinlupa City for
immediate implementation. The Director of the Bureau of Corrections is directed to report the
action he has taken to this Court within five days from receipt of this Decision.
SO ORDERED.
To appraise you of the Court Ruling that would interest the readers to read the case
in full, the dispositive portion is quoted verbatim below:
R.A. No. 9165 was enacted in 2002 to pursue the States policy to safeguard the
integrity of its territory and the well-being of its citizenry particularly the youth,
from the harmful effects of dangerous drugs on their physical and mental wellbeing, and to defend the same against acts or omissions detrimental to their
development and preservation.
R.A. No. 9165 repealed and superseded R.A. No. 6425, known as the Dangerous
Drugs Act of 1972. Realizing that dangerous drugs are one of the most serious
social ills of the society at present, Congress saw the need to further enhance the
efficacy of the law against dangerous drugs. The new law thus mandates the
government to pursue an intensive and unrelenting campaign against the trafficking
The required procedure on the seizure and custody of drugs is embodied in Section
21, paragraph 1, Article II of R.A. No. 9165, which states:
(1) The apprehending team having initial custody and control of the drugs shall,
immediately after seizure and confiscation, physically
inventory andphotograph the same in the presence of the accused or the
person/s from whom such items were confiscated and/or seized, or his/her
representative or counsel, a representative from the media and the Department of
Justice (DOJ), and any elected public official who shall be required to sign the copies
of the inventory and be given a copy thereof[.]
and use of dangerous drugs and other similar substances through an integrated
system of planning, implementation and enforcement of anti-drug abuse policies,
(a) The apprehending officer/team having initial custody and control of the
In a prosecution for illegal sale of a prohibited drug under Section 5 of R.A. No.
9165, the prosecution must prove the following elements: (1) the identity of the
buyer and the seller, the object, and the consideration; and (2) the delivery of the
thing sold and the payment therefor. All these require evidence that the sale
transaction transpired, coupled with the presentation in court of the corpus delicti,
i.e., the body or substance of the crime that establishes that a crime has actually
been committed, as shown by presenting the object of the illegal transaction. [2]
[26]
To remove any doubt or uncertainty on the identity and integrity of the seized
drug, evidence must definitely show that the illegal drug presented in court is
the same illegal drug actually recovered from the appellant; otherwise, the
prosecution for possession or for drug pushing under R.A. No. 9165 fails. [3][27]
Justice (DOJ), and any elected public official who shall be required to sign the copies
of the inventory and be given a copy thereof: Provided, that the physical inventory
and photograph shall be conducted at the place where the search warrant is served;
or at the nearest police station or at the nearest office of the apprehending
officer/team, whichever is practicable, in case of warrantless seizures; Provided,
further, that non-compliance with these requirements under justifiable grounds, as
long as the integrity and the evidentiary value of the seized items are properly
preserved by the apprehending officer/team, shall not render void and invalid such
seizures of and custody over said items[.]
Strict compliance with the prescribed procedure is required because of the illegal
A: The request for laboratory examination was prepared and was brought
drugs unique characteristic rendering it indistinct, not readily identifiable, and easily
The records of the present case are bereft of evidence showing that the buy-bust
xxxx
team followed the outlined procedure despite its mandatory terms. The deficiency is
patent from the following exchanges at the trial:
Q: After making the request, what did you do next[,] if any[,] Mr. Witness?
Q: After you handed this buy-bust money to the accused, what happened next?
From the foregoing exchanges during trial, it is evident that the apprehending team,
[PO3 ALMAREZ:]
upon confiscation of the drug, immediately brought the appellant and the seized
items to the police station, and, once there, made the request for laboratory
A: When the shabu was already with me and I gave him the money[,] I signaled the
examination. No physical inventory and photograph of the seized items were taken
in the presence of the accused or his counsel, a representative from the media and
the Department of Justice, and an elective official. PO3 Almarez, on cross-
xxxx
examination, was unsure and could not give a categorical answer when asked
whether he issued a receipt for the shabu confiscated from the appellant.[6][30] At
A: After arresting Pagaduan[,] we brought him directly in Diadi Police Station, sir.
Q: What happened when you brought the accused to the Police Station in Diadi?
items, without giving any justifiable ground for the non-observance of the required
procedures. People v. Garcia[8][32] likewise resulted in an acquittal because no
A: When we were already in Diadi Police Station, we first put him in jail in the
Municipal Jail of Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya, sir.
physical inventory was ever made, and no photograph of the seized items was taken
under the circumstances required by R.A. No. 9165 and its implementing rules.
In Bondad, Jr. v. People,[9][33] we also acquitted the accused for the failure of the
reasons behind the procedural lapses, and that the integrity and value of
justifiable grounds.
[38]
We recognize that the strict compliance with the requirements of Section 21 of R.A.
No. 9165 may not always be possible under field conditions; the police operates
under varied conditions, and cannot at all times attend to all the niceties of the
procedures in the handling of confiscated evidence. For this reason, the last
sentence of the implementing rules provides that non-compliance with these
cannot presume what these grounds are or that they even exist.[17][41]
The Chain of Custody Requirement
requirements under justifiable grounds, as long as the integrity and the evidentiary
value of the seized items are properly preserved by the apprehending officer/team,
In evidence, the one who offers real evidence, such as the narcotics in a trial of
shall not render void and invalid such seizures of and custody over said items[.]
drug case, must account for the custody of the evidence from the moment in which
Thus, noncompliance with the strict directive of Section 21 of R.A. No. 9165 is not
it reaches his custody until the moment in which it is offered in evidence, and such
evidence goes to weight not to admissibility of evidence. Com. V. White, 353 Mass.
confiscated evidence may still have some lapses, as in the present case. These
Likewise, Section 1(b) of Dangerous Drugs Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2002
In the present case, the prosecution did not bother to offer any explanation to
Chain of Custody means the duly recorded authorized movements and custody of
justify the failure of the police to conduct the required physical inventory and
photograph of the seized drugs. The apprehending team failed to show why an
inventory and photograph of the seized evidence had not been made either in the
place of seizure and arrest or at the nearest police station (as required by the
Such record of movements and custody of seized item shall include the identity and
signature of the person who held temporary custody of the seized item, the date
and time when such transfer of custody were made in the course of safekeeping and
The second link in the chain of custody is its turnover from the apprehending team
to the police station. PO3 Almarez testified that the appellant was brought to the
Diadi Police Station after his arrest. However, he failed to identify the person who
In Malillin v. People,[19][43] the Court explained that the chain of custody rule
had control and possession of the seized drug at the time of its transportation to the
requires that there be testimony about every link in the chain, from the moment the
police station. In the absence of clear evidence, we cannot presume that PO3
object seized was picked up to the time it is offered in evidence, in such a way that
Almarez, as the poseur buyer, handled the seized sachet to the exclusion of others
every person who touched it would describe how and from whom it was received,
during its transfer from the place of arrest and confiscation to the police station.
where it was and what happened to it while in the witness possession, the condition
The prosecution likewise failed to present evidence pertaining to the identity of the
in which it was received and the condition in which it was delivered to the next link
duty desk officer who received the plastic sachet containing shabu from the buy-
in the chain.
bust team. This is particularly significant since the seized specimen was turned over
to the PNP Crime Laboratory only after two days. It was not, therefore, clear who
In the present case, the prosecutions evidence failed to establish the chain that
would have shown that the shabu presented in court was the very same specimen
seized from the appellant.
The first link in the chain of custody starts with the seizure of the heat-sealed plastic
sachet from the appellant. PO3 Almarez mentioned on cross-examination that he
placed his initials on the confiscated sachet after apprehending the appellant.
Notably, this testimony constituted the totality of the prosecutions evidence on the
marking of the seized evidence. PO3 Almarezs testimony, however, lacked specifics
on how he marked the sachet and who witnessed the marking. In People v.
Sanchez, we ruled that the marking of the seized items to truly ensure that they
are the same items that enter the chain and are eventually the ones offered in
evidence should be done (1) in the presence of the apprehended violator (2)
had temporary custody of the seized items during this significant intervening period
of time. Although the records show that the request for laboratory examination of
the seized plastic sachet was prepared by Captain de Vera, the evidence does not
show that he was the official who received the marked plastic sachet from the buybust team.
As for the subsequent links in the chain of custody, the records show that the seized
specimen was forwarded by PO3 Almarez to the PNP Crime Laboratory on December
29, 2003, where it was received by PO2 Dulnuan, and later examined by PSI
Quintero. However, the person from whom PO3 Almarez received the seized illegal
drug for transfer to the crime laboratory was not identified. As earlier discussed, the
identity of the duty desk officer who received the shabu, as well as the person who
had temporary custody of the seized items for two days, had not been established.
immediately upon confiscation. In the present case, nothing in the records gives us
an insight on the manner and circumstances that attended the marking of the
The procedural lapses mentioned above show the glaring gaps in the chain of
confiscated sachet. Whether the marking had been done in the presence of the
custody, creating a reasonable doubt whether the drugs confiscated from the
appellant is not at all clear from the evidence that merely mentioned that the
appellant were the same drugs that were brought to the crime laboratory
crime the corpus delicti has not been adequately proven.[20][44] In effect, the
Court is one with all the agencies concerned in pursuing an intensive and
prosecution failed to fully prove the elements of the crime charged, creating
unrelenting campaign against this social dilemma. Regardless of how much we want
produce moral certainty that would convince and satisfy the conscience of those
presumption that official duties have been regularly performed. This presumption, it
If the prosecution has not proved, in the first place, all the elements of the crime
charged, which in this case is the corpus delicti, then the appellant deserves no less
performance and should make the presumption unavailable. In the present case,
than an acquittal.
the failure of the apprehending team to comply with paragraph 1, Section 21, Article
II of R.A. No. 9165, and with the chain of custody requirement of this Act effectively
negates this presumption. As we explained in Malillin v. People:[22][46]
WHEREFORE, premises considered, we hereby REVERSE and SET ASIDE the May
22, 2007 Decision of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CR-H.C. No. 01597. Appellant
Felimon Pagaduan y Tamayo is hereby ACQUITTED for failure of the prosecution to
by contrary proof and which when challenged by the evidence cannot be regarded
as binding truth. Suffice it to say that this presumption cannot preponderate over
cause.
We are not unmindful of the pernicious effects of drugs in our society; they are
lingering maladies that destroy families and relationships, and engender crimes. The
SO ORDERED.