Nova Parojinog found guilty in drug case, gets life imprisonment

The Quezon City Regional Trial Court has found former Ozamis City vice mayor Nova Princess Parojinog guilty of drug possession and sentenced her to life imprisonment and a fine of P500,000 to P10 million.

In a 161-page decision, Judge Mitushealla Manzanero-Casiño of the Quezon City RTC Branch 228 said there is no evidence to support the claim that the 677 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu that were seized from Parojinog were planted by authorities.

"The Court emphasizes that the accused, her son Edray and his friends all testified that they saw the policemen entering the main glass door of the house and going upstairs. However, there was nothing in their testimony and not one of them actually testified that they saw the policemen who entered the main glass door as carrying something suspicious," the court said.

In their pleading, the defense said an "advance security team illegally entered the house" even before the implementation of a court-issued search warrant for an "unaccounted period of time," which they argued gave the officers the opportunity to plant or tamper with the allegedly seized contraband.

Parojinog's lawyers also argued that the allegedly seized items were mishandled, breaking the chain of custody and compromising their integrity as evidence.

The court, however, said the prosecutors were able to establish the chain of custody of the seized drugs from the time of seizure up to the time of their presentation in court.

"The illegal drugs in the said case were even found inside the bedroom of persons other than the accused [Parojinog] but [even] inside the rest house owned by the accused," the court said.

The insistence of the defense that the chain of custody document should bear the signature of all the persons who handled the seized evidence, the court said, is superfluous as the chain may be established by piecing together the evidence presented by the prosecution.

"There is no doubt in the mind of the Court that the prosecution has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of illegal possession of 677.6796 grams of shabu," the court said.

The court also ordered the jail warden of the Taguig City Jail Female Dormitory to turn over the custody of Parojinog to the Correctional Institute for Women upon receipt of the court decision. 

Political family

Parojinog belongs to a political family that former President Rodrigo Duterte accused of involvement in the illegal drug trade. She and her brother Reynaldo Parojinog Jr. were arrested during a July 30, 2017 police raid in their property that killed their father, then-Ozamiz City mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., his wife, and 13 others.

This bloody incident that killed 13 people was also cited by the court in deciding that there is no broken chain of custody of evidence, given that previous Supreme Court decision on People vs. Danny Taglucop which states that “ the immediate physical inventory and photograph of the confiscated items at the place of arrest may be excused in instances when the safety and security of the apprehending officers and the witnesses required by law or of the items seized are threatened by immediate or extreme danger such as retaliatory action of those who have the resources and capability to mount a counter-assault.”

“The extraordinary event which happened on the day of July 30, 2017 is enough justifiable ground allowing a departure from the rule on strict compliance as to the completion of the marking and inventory at the place of seizure. As it stands, the non-compliance triggers the operation of the saving clause of Section 21 of R.A. 9165 as amended by R.A. 10640 which states that “noncompliance of these requirements under justifiable grounds, as long as the integrity and the evidentiary value of the seized items are properly preserved by the apprehending officer/team, shall not render void and invalid  such seizures and custody over said items,” the court said.

“While the court agrees with the defense that there is vast jurisprudence which state that the evidence must be immediately marked at the place of seizure, the Supreme Court has in several instances recognized the validity of marking the seized evidence in the police station, as in the case at bar,” the court added.

The court also noted neither does the absence of a physical inventory nor the lack of photograph of theconfiscated item renders the same inadmissible.

“What is of utmost importance is the preservation of the integrity and evidentiary value of the seized items as these would be used in determining the guilt or innocence of the accused,” the court said.

Memorandum

In a memorandum filed on December 2, 2023, the defense argued that Parojinog was illegally arrested as she was seen on CCTV footage handcuffed even before the search warrant that was used in the operation was served.

The court, however, noted that a footage showed that the handcuff was removed prior to the conduct of the search and that Parojinog herself did not mention in her testimony that she was told that she is under arrest before she was handcuffed.

"Thus, the accused was not under arrest within the contemplation of law before the authorities implemented the Search Warrant," the court said.  —KBK/RSJ, GMA Integrated News