Correction. Lt. Commander Meija was Wrongly accused.
American serviceman wrongly accused of smuggling out cocaine
FROM: The Philippines News Agency ~
MANILA, Philippines
American serviceman Lt. Cmdr. Scintar B. Mejia should have been promoted to
the rank of full commander in the Navy if he did not leap to his death at
the stairway of the Police Center for Aviation Security office at the Ninoy
Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Monday.
Mejia on Sunday was wrongly accused of smuggling out a plastic sachet of
cocaine, where he was apprehended and brought to the office of the Police
Center for Aviation Security at the NAIA complex before he could board his
Philippine Airlines flight to Los Angeles.
According to a report by PDEA Director III Wilkins M. Villanueva, dated
December 27, which was only released Tuesday, citing the laboratory result
prepared by PDEA's chemist Maria Therese Anne L. Domingo that the substance
in question turned out to have negative findings of dangerous drugs.
Earlier, reports said security personnel Jose Saul Villegas, not knowing
that Mejia was a US Naval officer, sought police assistance after Mejia
allegedly became hysterical and shouted invectives on him. Villegas told
investigators that Mejia threw a plastic sachet that contained the suspected
cocaine.
Villegas said in the report that he noticed "a white powdery substance
inside the transparent plastic sachet thrown unto him earlier by the suspect
which was suspected to be cocaine."
The suspect was arrested by policemen SPO2 Roberto D. Figueras and SPO1
Mateo Aguilas for possible violation of RA 9165 and violation of Article 155
for Alarm and Scandal.
When he was in the custody of the aviation police, Mejia asked his escort
cops if he could go to the comfort room but it was occupied.
He begged policemen SPO2 Figueras and SPO1 Aguilas to allow him to relieve
himself outside the building which the two policemen granted.
When Mejia was already walking with the aviation police, he ran off towards
the door of the building and jumped at the approximately ten-feet-high
stairway hitting his head to the ground. He later died at the San Juan De
Dios Hospital for head injuries.
US embassy officials through Joey McGee of the Police Protection Department
were informed of the incident, while Pasay Police Office had been requested
for an impartial investigation of the case.
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