Wednesday, October 08, 2008 3 get life terms for shabu-making By Rhodamae M. Hernandez
THE Regional Trial Court (RTC) sentenced two men and a woman to life imprisonment for manufacturing dangerous drugs and delivering drug apparatus and other paraphernalia.
The convicts were among those arrested following the death of several Oriental-looking men inside a shabu factory in Dumoy, Davao City, on December 26, 2004.
RTC Branch 9 Judge Romeo C. Albarracin convicted Jed Pilapil Sy, Jong Pilapil alias Jones Yu Pilapil, and Carlos Sy alias Carlou Sy after the prosecution proved that they indeed are guilty of the charges.
Records showed that the accused, assisted by their legal counsels, pleaded not guilty during their arraignment.
The bust came after erstwhile Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Southern Mindanao chief Wilkins Villanueva received information from Manila that there were oriental-looking men who were going to construct a clandestine laboratory for dangerous drugs in Davao City.
With that information, the PDEA agents went on surveillance and noticed suspicious activities going on in an apartment and a warehouse in Dumoy in the early part of 2004.
Since then, the team has been casing the surroundings of the apartment and warehouse where they saw Allan Sy, who remains at large, and the oriental-looking men manufacturing shabu.
The court evaluated that the evidence gathered by the prosecution against the accused were the result of the intensive surveillance and police operations from October 8, 2004 up to January 8, 2005.
And the core of the defense is one of a denial, and "while the court observes that there is indeed no direct evidence linking Jed Sy and Jong Pilapil to the manufacture of dangerous drugs at the Dumoy warehouse, the two accused failed to rebut it".
Albarracin also ruled that in these cases, "the guilt has been demonstrated with moral certainty thus the conviction."
The court also ordered the accused to pay a fine of P500,000 each for the manufacture and delivery of apparatus charges and another P5 million each for manufacture of drugs charges.
