G.R. No. 216430 - PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, VS. YASSER ABBAS ASJALI.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, in view of all the foregoing, Judgment is hereby rendered finding the accused herein, Yasser Asjali y Abbas, guilty beyond reasonable doubt in both the above-entitled cases and hereby sentences him in Criminal Case No. 4995 (19919) to suffer the penalty of Life Imprisonment and to pay the fine of P1,000,000.00 and in Criminal Case No. 4996 (19920) to suffer the penalty of imprisonment for Twelve (12) Years and One (1) day as Minimum to Fifteen [15] Years as Maximum and to pay the fine of P300,000.00 and to further pay the costs of this suits . [24] In his appeal before the Court of Appeals, accused-appellant, represented by the Public Attorney's Office, asserted that the RTC gravely erred in finding him guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the offenses of illegal sale of dangerous drugs and illegal possession of dangerous drugs. Accused-appellant argued that the alleged entrapment operation was dubious since it was not coordinated with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA); the supposed informant of the police was never identified or presented to testify; no surveillance was conducted prior to the buy-bust operation; and SPO1 Jacinto even confirmed that he did not actually see PO2 Seril give money to accused-appellant in exchange for a packet of shabu. Accused-appellant also averred that there was enough reason to doubt whether the sachets of shabu actually came from him because the chain of custody of the said sachets as required by law was not substantially followed by the members of the buy-bust team. Accused-appellant pointed out that no marking, physical inventory, and photograph of the sachets of shabu were taken in his presence or his counsel, a representative from the media and the Department of Justice (DOJ), and an elective official, immediately after the alleged buy-bust operation. Accused-appellant additionally contended that Criminal Case Nos. 4995 and 4996 involved the same subject matter, so the charge against him for illegal possession of dangerous drugs in Criminal Case No. 4996 should have been deemed absorbed by the charge (and his eventual conviction) for illegal sale of dangerous drugs in Criminal Case No. 4995. In its Decision dated October 9, 2014, the Court of Appeals denied accused-appellant's appeal and affirmed the judgment of conviction of the RTC. Hence, accused-appellant lodged his present appeal. The Court finds the appeal meritorious. It is a basic legal tenet in the prosecutions for violations of Sections 5 and 11 of Republic Act No. 9165 that the State bears the burden not only of proving the elements of the offenses of sale of dangerous drug and of the offense of illegal possession of dangerous drug, but also of proving the corpus delicti, the body of the crime. Corpus delicti has been defined as the body or substance of the crime and, in its primary sense, refers to the fact that a crime was actually committed. [25] In all prosecutions for violations of Republic Act No. 9165, the corpus delicti