Fish vendor meted 15 years in jail for drugs

A dried fish vendor from barangay Pasil who was arrested by the police last year for possession of a pack of shabu will stay behind bars for 14 more years after the court convicted him yesterday and sentenced him to 15 years in jail.

Regional Trial Court judge Gabriel Ingles rejected the alibi of Romano Lucernas, 32, because he failed to support with concrete proof his denial that he was not in possession of shabu when he was arrested on March 24, last year.

Lucernas said he and a friend were just watching a video karera game inside a house at barangay Sawang Calero when SPO1s Elmer Abelgas and Williard Selebio arrested them for no reason at all.

After he was brought to the police station, Lucernas said his arresting officers made him to choose what charges would be filed against him, either sale or possession of shabu.

But the arresting officers insisted that while they were patrolling the place they saw a man later identified as Lucernas talking to a man then showing him a pack of shabu in his open palm.

"Based on the failure of the defense to establish malice or ill-will on the part of the arresting officers against the accused and the foregoing principle, this court finds the testimonies of officers Selibio and Abelgas credible," Ingles ruled.

Aside from the 15 years imprisonment, Ingles ordered Lucernas to pay the government P300,000 fine for violating the provisions of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Law. - Rene U. Borromeo