A drug pusher from barangay Looc, Dumaguete City, was convicted to life imprisonment in the first conviction for drug cases in 2011.
RTC Branch 30 Judge Rafael Crescencio Tan of the Special Court for Drug Cases meted the life sentence on one Cristitu Ramirez for the illegal sale of 0.01 gram of shabu in violation of Section 5, Article II of the Dangerous Drugs Act. Ramirez was also fined P500,000.
Ramirez was arrested April 28, 2008 in a buy-bust operation conducted by joint elements of the NBI, PDEA and Dumaguete City Police station at Zone 4, Barangay Looc, Dumaguete.
Ramirez had sold one heat-sealed transparent plastic with the shabu to an informant who posed as buyer.
Aside from the evidence and the successful handling of the prosecution, Judge Tan said the Court found the testimony of the sole eyewitness, an NBI Agent, to the transaction to be clear, straightforward and worthy of credence.
The accused tried to wiggle himself out of the case by claiming that the informant-poseur buyer was not presented in Court.
The court ruled that the non-presentation of the informant-poseur buyer cannot prejudice the prosecution’s theory of the case. As a rule, it is rare for the prosecutor to present the informant because of the need to hide the latter’s identity and preserve his invaluable service to the police.
There is also no law requiring that in drug cases, the testimony of a single eyewitness has to be corroborated to be believed. “Corroborative evidence is vital only when there are reasons to suspect that the witness twisted the truth, or that his or her observation was inaccurate,” the Court said. (PR)