A drug peddler was meted life imprisonment, while two other persons were sentenced to suffer an indeterminate penalty of 12 years and one day to 14 years as maximum in jail imprisonment in three judgments promulgated Sept. 30, 2010 at the Special Court for Drug Cases, RTC, Branch 30, Dumaugete City. {{more}}
Sentenced to life imprisonment was Vincent Teves, who was charged for illegally selling and delivering to a poseur- buyer 0.03 gram of shabu. a violation of Section 5, Article II of R.A. No. 9165.
On June 20, 2007, at about 12 noon, joint elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the Dumaguete City NBI, and police were in barangay Looc to conduct a buy-bust operation against Teves.
Teves and the poseur- buyer had an exchange of the marked money and the sachet containing shabu, which made the operatives approach Teves, who noticed them and tried to run. SRA Dungog and PO3 Paquea were able to grab the accused, who resisted his being held by the police officers.
The court gave more weight to the testimonies of the buy-bust team, which established that an operation was legitimately and successfully carried out to entrap the accused Teves, who simply denied that he sold and delivered to a poseur-buyer shabu on that day.
The presumption of innocence accorded to the accused Teves had been overturned by the evidence presented by the prosecution.
Contrary to the assertion of Teves, the prosecution had convincingly proved beyond reasonable doubt that the crime charged was committed by Teves.
The inability of Teves to predicate his defense on anything other than his words alone ultimately condemned him to prison, especially in the light of the prosecution’s evidence and witnesses, which he had been incapable of impeaching.
The Special Court for Drug Cases also sentenced Adam Cuevas and Kim Pinili to an indeterminate penalty of 12 years and one day as minimum term to 14 years maximum in jail for violating Section 11, Article II of R.A. No. 9165 for illegal possession of 0.06 gram and 0.02 gram of shabu, respectively.
Cuevas was arrested on Sept. 27, 2006 in an interior part of Zone 4, Barangay Looc where he was seen holding and examining two sachets of shabu.
When approached by the police operatives, he immediately dropped both sachets on the ground and covered them with his right foot.
Pinili was arrested on June 12, 2007 at Luke Wright Street area, Barangay 2, where he was seen walking and checking in his hand two sachets of shabu. When grabbed by the police officers, Pinili dropped the sachets on the ground where they were picked up by the police officers.
In both cases, the prosecution was able to adduce proof beyond reasonable doubt that Cuevas and Pinili were found in possession of the shabu as charged.
In both cases also, the defense of Cuevas and Pinili, were both bare denial and nothing more.
Denial is considered an inherently weak defense, for it can easily be concocted and is a common standard line of defense in drug cases. It is even weaker in the face of positive identification of the two by the prosecution witnesses. (RTC Branch 30 PR)
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