A Las Piñas court rules that Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s eldest son — who was arrested last October for receiving a parcel of high-grade marijuana valued at ₱1.25 million — is not guilty of illegal drug possession.

“WHEREFORE premises considered, accused Juanito Jose Remulla III y Diaz is ACQUITTED of the crime of violation of Section 11, Article II of Republic Act No. 9165 (the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002), on the ground of reasonable doubt,” Judge Moldez said in his 34-page decision.

“After an assiduous review of the evidence of the parties in this case, there is reasonable doubt that the accused (Juanito) received and possessed the parcel delivered to him with the knowledge, consciousness, and awareness that said parcel contained the alleged two bags of marijuana,” Judge Moldez said.

“The testimonies of the prosecution’s witnesses themselves failed to clearly prove the existence of animus possidendi (intent to possess) on the part of the accused,” Moldez said.

PDEA agents, one of them Intelligence Officer 1 (IO1) Eduardo Bongao, who posed as a deliveryman during the entrapment operation. According to him, “Ang reply nya po ma’am, ‘wala akong inaasahang parcel, padala’ ma’am (His reply was ‘I am not expecting any parcel.”

Accused replied: “Hindi ko kilala yan pero kung nakapangalan sa akin kunin ko na (I don’t know him but if the package has my name on it, I might as well accept it).”

“Unfortunately, apart from showing that the package or parcel was handed to the accused, the prosecution did not present other evidence to show that the former knew that it contained marijuana. The prosecution failed to show that accused, by receiving the parcel, knew that he was also possessing illegal drugs,” Moldez stressed.

“Evidently, there was no testimony or other proof how the evidentiary value of the parcel and its contents were preserved from 04 October 2022 until it was turned-over to the PDEA on 10 October 2022. The prosecution failed to establish that during the ‘detection stage’ or before the parcel allegedly containing the illegal drugs were turned-over to the PDEA that precautions were taken to ensure that there had been no change in the condition of the parcel and its contents and that there was no opportunity for someone not in the chain to have possession of the same during the period. Because of these, this Court is unable to discount the possibility of evidence tampering on that occasion,” he stressed.