Shoe repairman meted 15 years for shabu possession

The court yesterday sentenced to 15 years imprisonment a 62-year-old shoe repairman in barangay Luz for possession of shabu, but acquitted two others because their arrests were found to be illegal.

Regional Trial Court Judge Gabriel Ingles ruled that Mariano Abear of barangay Luz is guilty beyond reasonable doubt for violating Section 11, Article II of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

Abear was ordered by the court to pay P300,000 fine.

Records of the case showed that Abear was inside his shoe repair shop when he was arrested by policemen who claimed they saw the old man handing over, to customers, small packs which contained white powder believed to be shabu.

Suspicious of Abear’s activities, PO2 Jonas Tajanlangit and his companions approached the old man when he was about to hand over packs containing suspected shabu to a woman. But upon seeing the approaching cops, the old man dropped the packs to the ground.

The cops picked up the plastic packs and found out that these contained shabu. Abear was then arrested and frisked which yielded four more packs of shabu kept in his pocket.

“The court is convinced that the policemen had a valid ground, based on events they personally witnessed, to believe in good faith that Abear was committing a crime in their presence which justified the arrest despite absence of warrant,” Ingles said.

But RTC Executive Judge Fortunato de Gracia acquitted both Elmer Alimpuangon and Erwin Asignar who were separately arrested by the police for possession of shabu.

Alimpuangon was arrested while reportedly sniffing shabu together with a friend inside a hut in barangay Duljo-Fatima on February 11, 2004. But it was found out that the arresting officers entered the house without a valid search warrant.

Although the policemen claimed they recovered illegal drugs from Alimpuangon, the law provides that evidence illegally taken from a person could not be used as evidence against him.

Meanwhile, Asignar was arrested by policemen who earlier raided an illegal gambling den in barangay Pulangbato. But Asignar did not run away because he was only watching the persons engaged in “hantak”, an illegal coins game.

Still, Asignar was arrested and frisked. The police claimed they recovered a pack of shabu from his pocket.

De Gracia ruled that the pack of shabu taken from Asignar could not also be used as evidence against him. — Rene U. Borromeo/MEEV