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Saturday, July 01, 2006
Denial fails to save Carcar’s ‘drug king’ from life sentence
Merlito “Etot” Saducas, a former “mayor de mayores” of the Cebu provincial jail and tagged as Carcar’s drug king, was found guilty of transporting illegal narcotics.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of P500,000, in an order issued by Cebu Regional Trial Court
Judge Fortunato de Gracia.
Saducas was arrested along with Hipolito Abesia last June 18, 2003, after the San Fernando police received a call about two persons on a motorcycle transporting shabu and going to Carcar.
In 2004, the court issued an order dropping Abesia from the charge, noting that he was merely hired to drive the motorcycle and had no idea that Saducas was bringing drugs.
Arresting officers testified that they conducted a checkpoint after receiving the tip.
They did not recover anything from Abesia but got three packs of shabu from Saducas.
Aside from the drugs, the police also recovered cash and a cellular phone.
Saducas insisted he is innocent of the charge.
Expired
He denied owning the three packs of shabu that the police recovered from him. The only violation he committed at that time, he stressed, was that the registration of his motorcycle was expired.
Also, he claimed to be a victim of revenge from police officers with whom he had bad relations.
Saducas said that after his arrest, one SPO4 Sergio Oroc arrived and scolded him for filing a case of grave threats, for which the policeman was convicted but acquitted upon appeal.
But Judge de Gracia noted that apart from Saducas’ claims of allegedly vengeful policemen, he did not present any evidence in his defense.
“The prosecution ably and sufficiently discharged its prosecutory functions when they proved all requisites of the offense of transporting dangerous drugs, as against the bare denials of the accused bereft of any material corroboration,” ruled de Gracia. (MIT)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 1, 2006 issue)
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