A drug personality considered in PDEA dossiers as ‘high value target’ was freed on P500,000 bail bond. This drug target identified as Benjamin Sherwin Bautista, 38, and a native of Inabanga town, became controversial after it was known that he was the poseur-buyer in the capture of Steven Valles y Lumitaw, an agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency assigned in Cebu but included Bohol as part of his jurisdiction. It was also revealed that it was Bautista who owned the P60,000 buy-bust money to bag Valles. Presiding Judge Pablo Magdoza of the Regional Trial Court Branch 8, ordered the temporary release of Bautista, after the court found that the evidence of guilt of accused Bautista was not strong and therefore, the instant petition for bail was granted. Bail was allowed in the sum of P500,000.

It was a different story in the case of Valles. When he filed an application for bail, Executive Judge Suceso Arcamo denied him the privilege to be freed on bail citing the strong case presented by witnesses of the prosecution. Bautista was arrested by an overwhelming force of PDEA agents and members of the 2 nd Special Forces Battalion of the Philippine Army while participating in a motocross in Loon town last September 8. According to witnesses of the PDEA, the agency’s confidential agent informed morning of Sept. 8 their team leader identified as Deputy Regional Director Levi Ortiz to proceed with the buy-bust operation against Bautista near the Holy Name Funeral Homes in Loon. Not taking chances, it was said that Ortiz asked the assistance of the Philippine Army stationed in Carmen town to assist in effecting the entrapment against Bautista. According to the narration of the witnesses identified as 103 Feliciano Bersales and 101 Joebane Labajo. Bersales and Labajo acted as poseur-buyers together with a confidential agent. It was Labajo who prepared the buy-bust money given to him by Ortiz consisting of 60 pieces of P1,000 peso bills.

The same witnesses said they went to the corner of a road which is 15 to 30 meters from the Holy Name Funeral Homes, while the rest of the team and the special forces positioned themselves near the Loon Municipal Hall. Accordingly, Bautista allegedly arrived riding on a motorcycle and the confidential agent introduced Labajo to Bautista as the one who was interested to buy “shabu” worth P60,000 from the poseur-buyer. Moments later, several persons riding on motorcycles arrived and encircled them (Labajo, Bernales, confidential agent and Bautista) and the transaction proceeded with Bautista recieving P60,000 from Labajo and delivering two big packs of shabu to Labajo. After the alleged delivery, Bautista allegedly warned the men not to use their cell phones and went away escorted by two-motorcycle-riding men.

Then, Ortiz ordered his men to regroup at the municipal hall. The team leader then received a message that Bautista was seen watching a motocross competition so that the PDEA team together with the Special Force Battalion members proceeded to the area where they saw Bautista and arrested him. With Bautista’s arrest, the court noted that the team did not recover anything from the body of the suspect and the alleged buy-bust money was not found in his possession either. In his own testimony, Bautista denied that there was a buy-bust operation conducted by the PDEA agents against him near the funeral parlor. This denial in effect shot down the testimony of PDEA witnesses that money was handed down in exchange of the prohibited drugs. The suspect alledged that PDEA agents concocted stories against him in retaliation of his participation as a poseur-buyer in a buy-bust operation against Valles.

Bautista likewise told the court that he considered himself as a police asset and many were arrested for selling dangerous drugs because of his participation in the anti-drug operation of the police. He even said that he used to be a PDEA asset before he became a police asset. From the evidence presented by the parties, Judge Magdoza found the following: “The testimony of Labajo was apparently unreliable and not credible which cast serious doubts on his claim that a buy-bust operation occurred. His allegations that Bautista was able to go away with the buy-bust money because several motorcycle-riding men surrounded them during the exchange of “goods” was unbelievable considering that there were 15 PDEA agents and 15 Army men who were involved in the alledged operation against the accused. The court further noted that a blocking force from the Army’s special forces could have prevented the “escape” of the accused if really there was an actual buy-bust operation.

Another loophole in the testimony of Labajo was when he was contradicted by Manolito Maestrado, the media representative, who signed the Certificate of Inventory, who testified that he arrived at the PDEA office in Tagbilaran City only at 8:30 o’clock in the evening and he signed the Certificate of Inventory only at 8:40 o’clock in the evening. The court said there seemed to be a mystery involved in the two big packs of suspected shabu which Labajo alleged to be in his possession. Then the court asked: why were they not shown to the media men who arrived ahead of Maestrado and who were also requested to sign the Certificate of Inventory because they did not see the alleged dangerous drugs? Why was it shown to Maestrado only after the arrival of the PDEA regional director? The accused in the petition for bail was represented by lawyer Alexander Lim of the Lim-Trabajo Law Office.