PEOPLE VS ARUTA

G.R. No. 120915 | APRIL 3, 1998

FACTS:

On the 13th day of December, 1988 the law enforcement officers received an information from
an informant named “Benjie” that a certain “Aling Rosa” would be leaving for Baguio City
tomorrow and would be back in the afternoon of the same day carrying with her a large volume
of marijuana. The following day at 6:30 in the evening Rosa Aruta alighted from a Victory Liner
Bus carrying a travelling bag. When the informant pointed at Aruta to the law enforcement
officers the NARCOM officers approached her and introduced themselves as NARCOM agents.
Aruta was then asked by Lt. Abello about the contents of her travelling bag, she gave the same
to him and when they opened the same, they found dried marijuana leaves. Aruta was then
brought to the NARCOM office for investigation. The trial court convicted the accused in
violation of the dangerous drugs of 1972.

ISSUE: Whether or not the warrantless search resulting to the arrest of Rosa Aruta violated his
constitutional rights.

RULING: Yes. The NARCOM agents were admittedly not armed with a warrant of arrest. To
legitimize the warrantless search and seizure of Aruta’s bag, she must have been lawfully
arrested without a warrant within the scope of Section 5 of Rule 113. Aruta cannot be said to be
committing a crime. There was no reason whatsoever for them to suspect that accused-
appellant was committing a crime, except for the pointing finger of the informant. There was no
legal basis for the NARCOM agents to effect a warrantless search, there being no probable
cause and the accused-appellant not having been lawfully arrested. The arrest being illegal
logically follows that the subsequent search was similarly illegal. The constitutional guarantee
against unreasonable search and seizure must perforce operate in favor of accused-appellant.
As such, the articles seized could not be used as evidence against Aruta for these are “fruits of a
poisoned tree” and, therefore, must be re