The Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office said it is the usual ploy of suspects and criminal elements that evidences are planted against them when they are arrested for crimes they committed.
Acting provincial police director Sr. Supt. Henry Biñas on Monday pointed out that claims of fabrication and frame up are a common defense that should be substantiated in court.
His statement comes following the recent arrest of Joel Ong Quiñones, alias Jake Ong, whose utility box yielded illegal drugs and illegal drug paraphernalia.
Quiñones was initially arrested for violations of traffic laws, driving without license, absence of side mirror, using an improvised muffler, driving a motorcycle without an OR-CR (official receipt-certificate of registration), sporting a motor plate from another motorcycle, resisting arrest, counter-flow a one-way street, and four counts of falsification of documents, among others.
A video of the process by which members of the Provincial Highway Patrol Team were searching his motorcycle has gone viral on Facebook, and has attracted countless criticisms and allegations over a perceived “planting of evidence” against the suspect.
The video showed two plastic sachets of suspected shabu found inside the utility box of the motorcycle.
Sr. Supt. Biñas said he believes that opening of the u-box of the motorcycle was incidental to a lawful arrest, and that it is up to the courts to determine if it was legal or not.
Being a lawyer by profession, Biñas said there was reason for the Highway Patrol Team to open the u-box on suspicion that something was inside it because the suspect refused to hand over the key of the motorcycle to them.
He added it was but proper they make an inventory of the contents of the u-box to prevent claims later that a certain amount of money or other gadgets were lost while in the custody of the law enforcers.
Biñas said it is better for the case to reach the courts so the accused is given time to prove that evidence was planted on him; rather than rant and complain to the public on social media where most of those who issued the negative comments, he said, may not really know the real score.
Biñas said that in every police operation, they never expect a hundred percent favorable comments anyway.
Even if the subject is criminal, there will always be negative comments against the police, especially from family and friends, he said about drug-related cases.
Quiñones is expected to be returned to Cotabato City where he is wanted for robbery since 2010, the same year he migrated to Negros Oriental.
According to Biñas, it is not for the police to conduct an investigation on the alleged planting of evidence because the HPT is administratively not under the PNP. (JFP/JG)
