The opium frame-up of Yap Buyco/Yap Buya in 1910
On February 14, 1910, in the town of Dalaguete, Cebu, a clerk of the Cebu Police Force, entered into a scheme with two policemen from Dalaguete, for the purpose of getting money by intimidation from a Chinaman by the name of Yap Buyco or Yap Buya. The clerk of the Cebu Police Force arranged with his younger brother to put a can with some opium in it in the said Chinaman's store.
After he did this, the clerk of the Cebu Police Force came to the store with two policemen, pretending to be the chief of police, with the other policeman carrying a revolver. They proceeded immediately to search the store without showing the necessary search warrant or warrant of arrest. After having moved and examined various articles and boxes in the store, they found the can of opium previously placed therein. They then intimidated the Chinaman who owned the store by telling him that he would be arrested, charged with illegal possession of opium, and taken to jail, unless he produced the sum of P1,000. But later, through the mediation of other Chinamen, the clerk consented to the reduction of the sum demanded to P300.
The clerk and the policemen went away after receiving the money, with the mastermind giving P10 pesos to the policeman. However, the Chinaman filed a complaint against the clerk-mastermind before the Fiscal's Office for the crime of robbery. The court dismissed the case against the police escorts. The one who was only tried before the court was the clerk of the Cebu Police Force. A judgment was rendered by the Court of First Instance on September 2, 1910 sentencing the clerk to the penalty of three years, eight months, and one day in jail.
The clerk-mastermind appealed his conviction before the Supreme Court who on January 17, 1912 modified his penalty to seven years and to pay Yap Buyco the amount of P300.
The Supreme Court said that the clerk, a resident of Dalaguete, Cebu, was unable to refute to conclusive and satisfactory evidence against him and that his defense was absolutely groundless, blaming the policemen as the ones who masterminded the frame-up, but the policemen denied that they were the ones who came up with the idea.
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