People v. Sison

Summary

The Supreme Court acquitted all three accused in this drug transportation case, reversing lower court convictions. The case involved alleged transportation of 6 kilos of marijuana based on a police tip leading to a checkpoint search. The Court ruled that the warrantless search was invalid because it relied solely on a radio tip without additional suspicious circumstances to establish probable cause. The Court emphasized that a single tip cannot constitute probable cause and that there must be a confluence of several suspicious circumstances. Since the seized marijuana was inadmissible evidence due to the invalid search, the prosecution lacked proof of corpus delicti, making acquittal inevitable. The decision reinforced constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures while criticizing the 17-year delay in case resolution.