NAGA CITY—Lawyer Ricardo Diaz, regional director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Bicol, is unhappy with the decision of a regional trial court here that dismissed an illegal drug case against a barangay captain.

        “There’s haste in dismissing the case against Barangay Captain Raoul Rosales because we were not given the chance to present our main witness, NBI undercover Special Investigator Joel Otic, the guy who secured the search warrant and met and transacted illegal drug trade business with the Rosales brothers Victor alias Chinglo and the barangay official alias Jackpot,” Diaz complained.

        The NBI operatives collared Rauol on June 5 after his house and Victor’s were searched. He was placed under the custody of the NBI and committed later to the Naga District Jail after the city prosecutor’s office found probable cause to charge him violating the anti-drug law. The city prosecutors did not recommend bail.

        Last week, the Regional Trial Court Branch 61, presided by Judge Maria Eden Altea, dismissed the illegal drug case against Raoul after an ocular inspection of the court at the house in Avocado St. where shabu or methamphethamine hydrocloride was supposedly found.

        Branch Clerk Maria Ursula Tablezo-Masagca explained that the court has found no passageway that connects the house of Raoul to the house of Victor, where the shabu was found.

        The house in which Otic secured the search warrant has been divided into two abodes where the families of Raoul and Victor reside separately.

        Masagca said Otic was opposed by Raoul’s counsels for reasons that it will drag the case. Instead the court, she said, issued subpoena to NBI Special Investigator Rowan Estrellado from the Legazpi City sub-regional office as an independent witness.

        The branch clerk said that Estrellado failed to appear in court on July 5 and then the judge ordered ocular inspection of the house at Avocado St. with four other independent witnesses that included local radio reporter Renan Rellosa.

        She said the ocular inspection that lasted two hours went through nooks and crannies of Raoul’s house including the basement and it was determined there was no passageway to make it appear that the house of the two accused brothers is one and the same.

        But Diaz insisted that the search warrant for one house applies because he said it was only divided but with no distinction from the original one.

        He added that Otic has detailed in his undercover mission that the house where Raoul supposedly lives is one and the same that of Victor’s.

        Diaz said that Otic has successfully penetrated the ring when the Rosales brothers met with the latter in the house at Avocado St. to close a drug deal.

        He said the NBI special investigator also reported that while the dealing was in progress, Raoul went upstairs and then came back with a black clutch bag full of shabu packed in sachets.

        Diaz said that they would file a motion for reconsideration and petition the court to allow Otic present his testimony in court.