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Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Trike driver gets life term for drugs sale
A tricycle driver was sentenced to life imprisonment while another man was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in jail after both were found guilty of separate drug cases.
Arcadio Abangan was convicted of illegal drug sale. He was also ordered to pay a fine of half a million pesos.
Abangan was arrested during a buy-bust on July 19, 2005 in Sitio Laray, Inayawan, Cebu City.
Arresting officers Joseph Yongco, Jaime Repompo and Arnel Sanchez testified that Abangan was the subject of a surveillance.
According to the prosecution witnesses, Abangan handed a pack of shabu weighing 0.10 gram worth P200 to a poseur-buyer.
Abangan denied the charge.
Parking
He said he parked his trisikad along the road where the other units were parked, after driving a passenger near Laray chapel in Inayawan.
He then noticed policemen chasing a person, when Repompo suddenly approached and arrested him.
Abangan admitted that he cried at the police station when he was charged. It was only at the station where Repompo allegedly took the pack of shabu inside his pocket and placed it beside the P200 used as buy-bust money.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Gabriel Ingles of Branch 59 noted that Abangan failed to convince the court when he narrated that he was only watching somebody being chased when he was suddenly arrested.
“He had no explanation why, of all the people in the area, he was chosen by the police,” Ingles stated in his nine-page decision.
“The accused is therefore trying to portray the arresting officers as so arbitrary, cruel and even inhuman as to arrest him absent any reason. He also relies merely on his uncorroborated testimony,” Ingles said.
No motive
The judge sided with the prosecution since the defense failed to present any ill-motive on the part of the policemen to arrest Abangan without reason.
Meanwhile, Danilo Uralde was charged with illegal sale of shabu, but the case was downgraded to illegal possession of shabu by the City Prosecutor’s Office.
Uralde was arrested following a buy-bust where he sold 0.1 gram of shabu to a poseur-buyer on Jan. 20, 2004.
When he was frisked after the arrest, two more packs of shabu weighing 0.12 gram were found in his pocket.
The prosecution presented as witnesses arresting officers Ariel Caloscos and Girlie Yaun.
Uralde failed to present evidence despite several notices from the court. (JGA)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 19, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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