Lawyer appeals not to arrest Cotabato state college president without court order

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines — The lawyer of a state college president from whose house agents found shabu Monday urged authorities not to arrest his client without court permission.

In a report Saturday, Catholic station dxND here said Israelito Torreon, counsel of Samson Molao, also questioned the veracity of his client’s having allegedly operated a drug den in the campus of the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology.

The state-owned school, most known as CFCST, is operating in the upland Arakan town in the third district of North Cotabato.

Torreon has emphasized that there is no warrant yet for the arrest of Molao.

Molao was charged by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency with violation of Section 6, Article 2 of the Republic Act 9165 that specifically outlawed operation of drug dens.

Republic Act 9165 is also known as the Philippine Dangerous Drugs Act.

PDEA agents, led by the Manila-based Levi Ortiz, director of the agency’s Special Enforcement Service, found some P500,000 worth of shabu in a cabinet in the official residence of Molao inside the CFCST campus on Monday morning.

Ortiz showed to reporters then copies of the warrant for the search, issued by Judge Alandrex Betoya of the Regional Trial Court in nearby Kabacan town also in North Cotabato.

Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command had said units of the Army’s 602nd Brigade are now helping the PDEA locate Molao in the neighboring Pagalungan and Montawal towns in Maguindanao.

The two towns are known ancestral domiciles of Molao.

Molao also has relatives in Pikit town in North Cotabato, also under the jurisdiction of the 602nd Brigade.

“Mindanao is under martial law until December 2018. The police and the military both have `enhanced authorities’ under martial law to address an issue like this. We are cooperating with PDEA on this,” Galvez said.

Torreon told dxND, one of six broadcast outfits in Mindanao of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation, that neither the police nor any agent of PDEA can arrest Molao without a warrant.

Ortiz said Friday they have submitted all the documents needed to prosecute Molao, supported with evidence, to the office of the North Cotabato provincial prosecutor in Kidapawan City.

“How can the PDEA issue a manhunt order when there is no warrant for his arrest? Molao was surprised to know that the charges against him included his alleged operation of a drug den inside the school,” Torreon said.

PDEA agents also found in the compound of the official residence of Molao 13 firearms, including an AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle, an M14 rifle and three M16 rifles.

Ortiz said they also filed a separate illegal firearm possession case against Molao using the seized weapons as evidence.

Galvez and the director of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares, had separately told reporters that under martial law, their intelligence agents can flex their connections with local government units to hasten their effort of helping PDEA find Molao.

Mijares said agents from the Maguindanao provincial police are now working along with traditional Moro elders and LGU officials in Pagalungan and Montawal towns in their search for Molao.