Man gets 15-year term for shabu possession

The Regional Trial Court yesterday sentenced a man to 15 years imprisonment for possession of shabu at the time the police arrested him for alleged snatching, four years ago.

The 23-year-old Santos Alcala, married and a resident of Magallanes Street in Cebu City failed to prove that the policemen planted the shabu on him, allegedly as evidence to pin him down for his alleged failure to comply with their demand for a P200,000 payoff.

RTC-branch 58 Judge Gabriel Ingles rejected Alcala's defense and declared him guilty beyond reasonable doubt for violating section 11, Article II of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act. The judge also ordered him to pay a fine of P300,000.

Ingles gave more credence to the testimonies of the policemen stating that Alcala was arrested by P01 Remes Goco who personally saw the suspect grabbed the shoulder bag of a woman, identified later as Rosemarie Donayre.

Donayre was walking along Osmena Boulevard corner Lapulapu Street on the evening of February 24, 2004 when Alcala and two others approached her and snatched her bag.

Goco said he was walking with his wife right in the area just in time when the incident took place. He quickly responded and tried to arrest the suspects. It was only Alcala who was arrested because his two companions, identified only as Asiong Casilao and Dexter, managed to escape.

Alcala was taken to the Waterfront Police Station where policemen frisked him and found from his pocket a pack of shabu. This led to the filing of the drug case against him. – Rene U. Borromeo/RAE