Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Woman gets jail term for sneaking in shabu
A wife, who visited her detained husband last year, will have to join him in prison for at least 12 more years after she was convicted of possessing a packet of shabu in one of her jail visits.
Regional Trial Court Branch 58 Judge Gabriel T. Ingles found enough evidence to convict Fely Daan, who was caught trying to sneak in a packet of shabu at the Talisay City Rehabilitation and Detention Center last Feb. 26, 2004.
She allegedly placed the packet of shabu inside the slippers she was wearing during her visit.
On top of her imprisonment, Daan was also fined P300,000 for the offense.
JO1 Jocelyn Banong testified in court that at about 1:10 p.m. on that day, she conducted a search, in a locked room, from head to toe on Daan.
During the inspection, she noticed something was protruding in the Daan’s right sandal, which Banong thinks was purposely inserted into.
When she checked, Banong found a packet of suspected shabu in it.
PNP Forensic Chemical Officer Medardo H. Palapo, who examined the packet, found the crystalline substance taken from Daan’s sandals to contain methyl amphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.
Daan, for her part, denied owning the sandal.
She said that a neighbor tried to sell the sandal for P50, but when she did not buy it, her neighbor just gave the sandals and told her to wear it in visiting the jail.
But Judge Ingles was not convinced with Daan’s defense.
“In the mind of the court, said defense is not credible. It is obvious that without any corroboration, her denial of the ownership of the slipper can easily be invented, concocted and devised, thus, deserves scant consideration,” Ingles said in his decision.
Ingles said the shabu taken from Daan is admissible as evidence because she consented to the search.
“Further, the court finds Banong to be credible because she testified in a straightforward manner. Further, there is no iota of evidence on record which will show that Banong had any ill-motive against the accused as to testify falsely against the latter,” the ruling read. (GN)
(July 27, 2005 issue)
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