The Regional Trial Court Branch 30, the special court for drug cases in Negros Oriental, has meted life sentences on two women last Friday.
Judge Rafael Crescencio Tan handed down the separate sentences on Grace Katalbas and Lalibeth Rodrigo for illegally selling dangerous drugs. The two women were also ordered to pay a fine of P500,000 each.
Katalbas was apprehended after she sold .34 grams of shabu to an undercover agent in barangay Looc last May 5, 2009 while, Rodrigo was arrested in a buy-bust operation at Mart One department store along Perdices St. last November 26, 2008. Confiscated from her was a pack of shabu weighing .02 grams.
The Court also slapped prison terms of from 12 to 14 years to four persons for illegal possession of shabu.
The four convicts, Jenny Martinez, Joselito Sumalinog, Danilo Enopre and Leonides Reginal Bandiola, were arrested on separate occasions in barangay Looc. Subsequent bodily searches found the packs of shabu–weighing from 0.01 grams to 0.02 grams– in their pockets.
These convicted female prisoners are awaiting transport to the Correctional Institution for Women at Mandaluyong City while the convicted male prisoners will be sent to the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.