Leonen: Preventing small-time drug offenders from seeking plea bargaining deal ‘cruel, degrading’

Preventing small-time drug offenders from striking a plea bargaining deal does not only violate the Supreme Court's power to promulgate its own rules but it is also a "cruel and degrading" punishment for the accused, according to SC Associate Justice Marvic Leonen.

Concurring with the SC's unanimous decision on August 15, Leonen said the aim of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 is "to rehabilitate, not punish, those drug offenders."

"When an accused pleads to a lesser offense [through plea bargaining], he or she waives all the fundamental rights guaranteed to an accused. It is essentially a choice that only the accused can make, as a way to acknowledge his or her guilt and as atonement for that guilt," Leonen said.

Leonen added most "drug pushers" that come before the courts are found with less than 0.1 gram of illegal drugs, which is similar to the case of petitioner Salvador Estipona Jr., who is in jail in Legazpi City for possession of 0.084 gram of shabu.

It was Estipona, through the help of the Public Attorney's Office, who convinced the high court to declare Section 23 of RA 9165, which prohibits plea bargaining, unconstitutional.

"While some of these accused will be charged with both selling and possession, most of them will have to suffer the penalty of selling, that is, life imprisonment. They will be sentenced to life imprisonment for evidence amounting to 'only about 2.5 percent of the weight of a five-centavo coin (1.9 grams) or a one-centavo coin (2.0 grams),'" the magistrate said in his concurring opinion.

Leonen also said the application of mandatory penalty of life imprisonment appeared to have "disproportionate impact on those who are poor and those caught with very miniscule quantities of drugs."

"A disproportionate impact in practice of a seemingly neutral penal law, in my view, will amount to an unusual punishment considering that drugs affect all economic classes," he said.

"Preventing the accused from pleading to the lesser offense of possession is a cruel, degrading and unusual punishment for those who genuinely accept the consequences of their actions and seek to be rehabilitated," Leonen said.

"It will not advance the policy of the law to punish offenders with penalties not commensurate with the offense and to hinder their reintegration into society."

Leonen, however, reminded the public that plea bargaining does not automatically mean the accused will be sentenced to a lesser offense.

He said the plea is subject to the concurrence of the prosecution and is only allowed by the discretion of the court. —KBK, GMA News