Man sentenced to life imprisonment for 13.35 grams of shabu
Rebuffing the defense that a police officer planted the illegal drugs recovered, an anti-drugs court here sentenced a man to life imprisonment for possessing 13.35 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
Judge Evelyn Salao, presiding judge of Regional Trial Court branch 25, also ordered Yul Paulino to pay the State P400,000 as fine following his conviction for possession of shabu in violation of Republic Act 9165.
Paulino’s counsels, lawyers Arthur Padojinog, Oscar Leo Billena, and Joel España will be appealing their client’s conviction.
During the trial, Brgy. Kagawad Virgilia Diel of Concepcion, City Proper, testified that SPO1 Rovelson Bagares, a member of the searching party, planted the shabu recovered from the house of Paulino.
In ignoring the defense of a frame up, Salao said in her decision, “To say that these were planted by SPO1 Bagares is to charge him rashly. The testimony of Brgy. Kgwd. Diel that she saw the string coming out from the pocket of SPO1 Bagares is uncorroborated. Moreover there is no positive testimony that the same string of the eye glass pouch was the same string coming from the pocket of SPO1 Bagares.”
The court further noted that the defense failed to prove personal grudge on the part of Bagares against Paulino.
“The court finds that the accused Yul Paulino is indeed guilty of having in his possession 13.35 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride,” the 13-page decision states.
Members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Police Regional Office 6’s Regional Intelligence Office and Task Force Waterfront conducted a search of Paulino’s house in Zamora Street, Brgy. Concepcion, City Proper in the early morning of September 25, 2003.
Authorities saw an eye glass pouch inside the house; inside it were several sachets of white crystalline substance, which were later found to be shabu.