3 get death for

Three men yesterday joined Death Row after Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 219 Judge Jose Catral Mendoza found them guilty of drug pushing.

The judge also ordered Seguindino Valencia, vegetable vendor, of Paltok, San Francisco Del Monte; Johnny Tadena, of Bago Bantay, and Domingo Deroy, tricycle driver, to pay a fine of P500,000 each and the costs of the litigation.

Police arrested the three during a sting operation at the corner of Baler and Miller Streets in Quezon City at around 10:58 p.m. on Sept. 22, 1998. They were caught after a tip from an informant that they were selling at least a kilo of shabu for P800,000.

Authorities later learned after a laboratory examination that the drug seized from them weighed only some 634 grams. Under the new death penalty law, however, mere possession of at least 200 grams of shabu, in the absence of any mitigating circumstances, is punishable by death.

At the trial, the three claimed they were abducted by police and tortured to confess to the crime. They said the police even told them they could walk free if they could each shell out P20,000 for bail.

"No amount of denial and alibi on the part of the accused can overturn the overwhelming evidence in favor of their liability," said the judge in his nine-page decision.

Their alibis, he said, were no match for the positive identification made by the poseur-buyer. Mendoza gave credence to the testimony of the police team which carried out the buy-bust operation.