‘Drug possession not immoral’

 BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

It may be criminal, but possession of prohibited drugs is not immoral.

This is the ruling the Supreme Court (SC) has handed down in the election protest against Ilocos Sur Rep. Ronald Singson, who was convicted of drug trafficking by a Hong Kong court in 2011.

The SC upheld Singson’s election, which his opponent, lawyer Bertrand Baterina, had questioned before the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) and later the high court on the basis of his Hong Kong drug conviction.

The son of former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson was an incumbent congressman at the time he was convicted. After serving time in a Hong Kong jail, he returned to the country and regained his congressional seat in the 2013 elections.

In seeking Singson’s disqualification, Baterina said his opponent was convicted of a crime involving “moral turpitude,” which is defined as anything “done contrary to justice, honesty, modesty or good morals.”

In 2010, Baterina said the Comelec disqualified Eduardo Rodriguez as a Quezon congressional candidate because he was convicted of insurance fraud in the United States, a crime involving moral turpitude.

Both the Comelec and the HRET threw out Baterina’s complaints.

In upholding Singson’s election, the SC said the Comelec and the HRET did not commit grave abuse of discretion in dismissing his opponent’s complaints.

As for the Ilocos Sur congressman’s drug conviction, the tribunal ruled that he was not guilty of a crime involving moral turpitude.

The SC said though Rep. Singson was charged with drug trafficking, he “pleaded guilty to and was found to have merely possessed the illegal drugs for his own consumption.”

“Mere possession of a prohibited drug cannot be considered immoral by itself if it were not prohibited by law, much like illegal possession of a deadly weapon and incidental participation in illegal recruitment,” the court said.

“We have held that moral turpitude implies something ‘immoral in itself, regardless of the fact that it is punishable by law or not. It must not merely be mala prohibita (wrong because prohibited), but the act itself must inherently be immoral. The doing of the act itself, and not its prohibition by statute, fixes the moral turpitude’,” it said.

The SC distinguished the act of pushing or trafficking in illegal drugs from mere possession of prohibited substances.

“In Office of the Court Administrator vsLibrado, the case cited by Baterina in order to prove that possession of a prohibited drug is a crime involving moral turpitude, the respondent therein was held guilty of both selling and possession of said drugs,” the court said.

“A careful examination of the discussion by this court shows that it is the pushing or selling of said prohibited drugs, and not the mere possession thereof, that is considered a crime involving moral turpitude,” the SC added.

The SC sustained Singson’s election a year before the May 9, 2016 elections, in which he is expected to seek a new term. His brother is the incumbent governor of their province.

The entire court resolved Singson’s case. Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin did not take part in the deliberations. The three sit in the HRET, which Velasco chairs.

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Matchmaking through the Internet will soon be outlawed with a bill seeking to outlaw the scheme related to mail order bride activities moves towards final reading approval in the House of Representatives.

The measure, House Bill 5572, was recently approved on second reading.  Authors of the measure are confident it will pass final reading without any amendments or oppositors.

HB 5572, a consolidation of two bills, seeks to protect Filipino men and women against unlawful matchmaking and mail order activities through both the postal service or the Internet.

The bill will repeal Republic Act 6955 or the anti-mail order bride law which was enacted 25 years ago. RA 6955 outlawed mail-order bride services in the Philippines, banning the practice of matching specifically Filipino women for marriage to foreign nationals using mail, advertisement, publication, printing or distribution of brochures, fliers and other propaganda materials.

With House Bill 5572, to be known as the Anti-Mail Order Spouse Act, it shall be unlawful to match both Filipino men and women for marriage or common law partnership to foreign nationals using the postal service and the Internet.

Principal authors are Reps. Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales (CIBAC Party-list) and Alfredo D. Vargas III (5th District, Quezon City), respectively.

In the explanatory note of her bill, Cruz-Gonzales said the measure aims to protect not only Filipino women but Filipino men as well against unscrupulous individuals who operate unlawful matchmaking activities and similar schemes through media, particularly the Internet.

“With the advent of the Internet, online matchmaking websites have proliferated and largely replaced traditional paper-based classifieds,” Cruz-Gonzales said.

On the other hand, Vargas called for the repeal of RA 6955, pointing out that the law has failed to curb the perils of women trafficking and failed to anticipate the proliferation of the mail-order bride industry in the Internet.

“At present, it has also been a trend for Filipino men to be engaged in mail-order spouse schemes and RA 6955 does not protect them from falling prey to exploitation,” Vargas said.

Under the bill, the use or creation of matchmaking websites in the Philippines is prohibited if it is created for the purpose of matching Filipinos for marriage or common law partnership to foreign nationals on a mail-order basis, through personal introduction or through emails or websites in the Internet.

HB 5572 also prohibits the exhibit, and to advertise, publish, print or distribute, or cause the exhibition, advertisement, publication, printing or distribution of any brochure, flier or any propaganda material, including those distributed and made available through the Internet, which are calculated to promote the prohibited acts in the measure.