CACHERO, ANGELIKA ROSE V.

June 14, 2021

CLJLAW6 5-8:00pm

REACTION PAPER
(Retired judge, nakialam sa PDEA drug raid! Supalpal kay BITAG! - Youtube)

Bitag (literally Trap) is an investigative and public service program hosted by Ben Tulfo and produced
by BITAG Media Unlimited Inc (formerly BST Tri-Media Productions) that airs in the Philippines. The
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is responsible for efficient law enforcement of all
provisions on any dangerous drugs and/or precursors and essential chemicals.

STRENGTH’S
The strengths made by the PDEA operations; They prepared a search warrant signed by the judge
to have authority to search the place and the fully conduct the raid operation to the accused Mr.
Alajar; They also had a briefing on the start of the operations with the help of other Anti-drug
groups and Bitag group for documentation. Operation briefing is very important for it is the
presenting of action plan to supervisor the tactical resources; After the operation they invited the
Kagawad of the Barangay and the Representative of the Department of Justice to witness the
Search warrant of to the house of the accused Mr. Alajar. They searched the area and successfully
provided evidence such as drugs, drugs paraphernalia bullets, firearms, and firearm magazines.
They arrest Mr. Alajar for the crime of Possession of Dangerous Drugs, and brought in jail.

WEAKNESS
The kind of training (if not the lack thereof) of these law enforcement officials. Before they went to
the suspect’s house, the law enforcement officers were given a “pep talk” and they all look ready to
do a “Rambo-like” operation. But when they proceed to search the house the uncle of the Judge
confronted them and said that only the searcher is allowed to enter the house yet them and the
other relatives stayed inside the residence of the arrested judge. When a search warrant is issued
and the law enforcement officers get to the house/property to be searched, the first thing the
officers must do is to evacuate everyone in the house (especially the suspect) and bring them
outside the house. At the same time, they should have cordoned off the property and with law
enforcement officers posted outside the property to keep out bystanders and nosey people from
swarming the property for which they have no business to be there in the first place. The PDEA
Director should not let the uncle (Ret. Judge) of the suspect get inside the property and engaged
him and his officers in any conversation as to the validity/legality of the search. The Judge has no
business meddling in the search, clearly an obstruction of justice and government operations that
can be filed against the Judge.  The only information that the Judge should get from PDEA is that a
search warrant was being served/executed against the occupants/premise, and that it is an on-
going investigation.  
Under the law, a person shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that is the very reason
why evidence must be collected and gathered to be used against a suspect to prove his guilt or
innocence in the court of law. The most important procedure in evidence collection is the wearing
of gloves so as not to contaminate and/or destroy evidence. The PDEA operation conducted upon
the search, not wearing of gloves is one of the mistakes done by them. If these officers don't use
gloves to collect evidence, the possibility of destroying evidence such as fingerprints, gun powder
residue, DNA, etc.
One of the weakness is less equipment, every member who conducted the operation should have
bullet proof vest and helmet for safety purpose as said by the Regional Director of the PDEA
everyone should be kept in safety mostly the civilians. These are some additional weaknesses
seen in the operation.