When Karding, a pusher, asked the poseur-buyer, a police officer, if he would like a “score,” he answered in the affirmative. Karding handed a matchbox containing the dangerous drug to the poseur-buyer, while the latter gave him a 100 peso marked bill. Upon giving the pre-arranged signal, the agents rushed inside and arrested Karding.
Karding argued the arrest without warrant is illegal. Is Karding’s argument tenable?
Answer:
No, Karding’s argument is untenable.
According to Section 3 of R.A. No. 9165 Sell is defined as any act of giving away dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential chemical whether for money or any other consideration.
In the case of People v. Chua Uy, 2000 arresting the pusher in the buy-bust operation without a warrant of arrest is legitimate. A buy-bust operation is a form of entrapment whereby ways and means are resorted for the purpose of trapping and capturing lawbreakers in the execution of their criminal plan; it is a procedure or operation sanctioned by law and which has consistently proved itself to be an effective method of apprehending drug peddlers.
When the police officer post as poseur-buyer to apprehend Karding, the police officer is within the bounds of the law by using legitimate ways of capturing the suspect by entrapment and by using 100 peso marked bill to arrest Karding.
Hence, the argument of Karding that he was arrested illegally is untenable.