Guilty

Seven Chinese nationals were meted life terms by the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) yesterday for manufacturing shabu in laboratory that was raided in San Juan last year.

Judge Librado Correa of Pasig City RTC Branch 164 ordered Cai Xihe, Tian Sang, Cai Dushi, Yan Qizhong, Lao Chi Diak, King Cheng and Lim Chamou to suffer reclusion perpetua after finding them guilty beyond reasonable doubt for violation Republic Act 6425, or the Dangerous Drugs Act.

Correa also ordered the seven accused to immediately be deported without further proceedings after service of sentence.

Dante Jimenez, chairman of the Violence Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), was not too happy with the decision, saying the Chinese nationals should have been meted the maximum penalty of death.

"So much evidence was presented which could have meted them the death penalty," said Jimenez in an interview.

Another anti-drug crusader, Mary "Rosebud" Ong, pointed out that in China, Filipinos caught in possession of illegal drugs are immediately executed.

Retired police chief Efren Fernandez, executive director of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), still hailed Correa’s decision, saying it showed that "justice is working positively in the country."

"If this is continues, we will prevail in our campaign against illegal drugs," said Fernandez, referring to the speedy trial of the cases against the seven Chinese nationals.

Fernandez was then chief of the Narcotics Group (Narcgroup) at the time the suspects were arrested.

Court records showed that the seven were arrested on Jan. 18, 2002 following a raid of a house at 93 Araullo street, Barangay Addition Hills, San Juan. The raid was led by Superintendent Federico Laciste and Napoleon Villegas, heads of the Regional Intelligence Special Operations Office (RISOO) and anti-trafficking division of the Narcotics Group (Narcgroup), respectively.

Laciste said they seized 812.8 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride, or commonly known as "shabu" from the seven men. Also recovered were plastic drums, electronic stirring equipment and hydrogen gas tanks.

The prosecution presented eight witnesses, including Inspector Orlando Carlos, the driver-bodyguard of a Narcgroup informant who managed to strike a deal with the suspects for the purchase of a large quantity of shabu. Carlos and the informant, Ramon Yu, managed to get inside the rented house of the Chinese nationals.

A sachet of suspected shabu was then brought to the crime laboratory of the Philippine National Police (PNP), which certified it as "high grade."

The crime laboratory findings prompted police to secure a search warrant from Judge Alfredo Flores of RTC Branch 167 before conducting a raid on the clandestine shabu laboratory.

In their defense, the Chinese nationals claimed they were laborers, security guards and farmers from Fookien, China. They arrived in Manila separately in 2001 to look for jobs when the police arrested them. They were framed by their captors, they claimed.

However, the court gave "full faith and credence" to the testimonies of the three policemen – Carlos, PO3 Vivencio Ulili and PO1 Richel Creer.

"It is the fundamental rule that law enforcers are presumed to have regularly performed their duties in absence of proof… The court is not disposed to give full faith and credence to the accused claim of having been framed," Correa said in his decision.

The judge ordered that all instruments, illegal drugs, chemicals and containers seized from the laboratory be confiscated and turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for "appropriate disposition in accordance with law."

The seven Chinese nationals calmly took the decision which was read by a clerk of court inside a jampacked courtroom at 9 a.m. Their lawyer Cipriano Robielos said he is still contemplating what actions he will take in light of Correa’s decision.