Two civilians, one of whom has been identified as the owner of the 100-kilo marijuana bricks seized by police early this year, were included as co-accused alongside the former chief of police of Kapangan, Benguet in a case lodged at the Ombudsman for violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act.

A resolution forwarded to the Ombudsman by the Benguet prosecutor’s office found sufficient evidence to establish that S/Insp. Bernardo Capela and two civilians, Peter Cayetano and Robert Baluda, “conspired to misappropriate and willfully fail to account for the confiscation of 100 kilos of marijuana and a motor vehicle seized on Feb. 13, 2008.”

Cayetano was identified in the resolution as the driver of the vehicle while Baluda was tagged as the owner of the seized contraband. The latter was also identified as the passenger of the vehicle when police stopped it at a checkpoint.

Both failed to answer or acknowledge the subpoenas served to them.
The resolution quoted the former police chief as denying the accusation, and dismissed the charges against him as “whole falsities, manufactured data, and baseless data.”

On the other hand, the resolution cited affidavits from 14 members of the Kapangan police force and from a civilian that reinforced the charges against Capela and the two civilian accused.

Violation of Section  27 of the Dangerous Drugs Act—which refers to misappropriation of illegal drugs—is penalized by life imprisonment or death, aside from a fine of P500,000 upwards to P10 million.

The resolution disclosed that aside from not putting out a report on the marijuana seizure, the former Kapangan police chief also brought the motor vehicle, a Tamaraw FX, to Paracelis in Mountain Province where it was last seen. Capela, in his counter-affidavit, acknowledged only a total of 43 kilograms of marijuana bricks seized on three different occasions.

His claims were found unacceptable by his superiors in the Benguet provincial police office.