RTC SCOLDS COPS FOR "BARBARITY"

The Regional Trial Court has admonished three policemen for arresting
last year a man for drug charges then detaining him by tying him to a
chair inside the police station because there was no detention cell to
keep him.

As such, RTC judge Fortunato de Gracia then cleared the arrested man,
Jeffrey Cuizon de la Cerna, from charges of shabu possession, saying
the policemen did not have any basis for arresting him.

De Gracia labeled the policemen's act of tying Dela Cerna to a chair
as "medieval barbarity" at the expense of a detained person who is
presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

De Gracia also said the prosecution failed to present the policemen's
basis in arresting Dela Cerna, the reason why the charges against the
accused should be dropped.

"The validity of the search being predicated on a lawful arrest,
should be factually demonstrated by indubitable proof that there was
indeed probable cause for the arrest," De Gracia stated in part in his
ruling.

In his court testimony, Dela Cerna said he was waiting for a ride near
the ice plant in barangay Lorega-San Miguel, Cebu City when the three
approached and accosted him. They then frisked him and got a knife
from him.

Dela Cerna said the policemen then handcuffed and brought him to a bar
where he was interrogated if he knew of a certain Pedro. He said he
told them of a neighbor by the same name who was allegedly a drug
peddler. Two of the policemen then left, leaving him in the custody of
the remaining policeman.

Thirty minutes later, they came back then allegedly mauled him while
berating him for lying about that certain Pedro. He was then brought
to T. Padilla police station I where he was handcuffed to a chair.

The policemen later told Dela Cerna's grandmother that they had found
from his grandson a packet of shabu aside from the knife, earlier
seized from him.