CA upholds drug conviction ruling

CEBU, Philippines - The Court of Appeals 18th Division has affirmed the ruling of the trial court convicting a man for illegal possession of drugs and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Executive Justice Pampio Abarintos denied the appeal of the accused seeking for the reversal of the decision of Cebu City Regional Trial Court Branch 13.

“Wherefore, the appeal filed by the accused-appellant is denied for lack of merit. Accordingly, the decision is affirmed,” the decision read.

The trial court convicted Edwin Taburnal for a violation of Section 11 of Republic Act 9165 otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act and sentenced to suffer the penalty of life imprisonment.

He was also made to pay P400,000 in fines.

On Mar. 4, 2006 at about 1:40 p.m. the police reportedly confiscated from the possession of the accused-appellant a heat-sealed transparent plastic packet with 15.75 grams of shabu and another heat-sealed transparent plastic with shabu weighing 0.02 grams. The police likewise seized drugs paraphernalia.

The police said they received information from an asset that accused-appellant was engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of shabu in his rented room at Sitio YHA, Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City.

In order to confirm, they said they conducted surveillance for two weeks before conducting the buy-bust operation.                     

In his testimony, accused-appellant denied the charges. He said he was a resident of Limkakeng Subdivision, Banawa, Cebu City. He said on the said date he was in Limkakeng to buy barbeque while waiting for a certain Daisy.

When Daisy arrived, he said he followed her to her room because he wanted to borrow money from her. While inside, he said they heard someone kicking in the door and two policemen from the Guadalupe Police Station entered and searched the area.

Accused-appellant told the police that they were searching the wrong place as it was not his room. He said he appealed the case before the CA because the trial court erred in convicting him.

He said the prosecution failed to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The police likewise failed to take a photograph of the confiscated items and there were no representatives from the media and the Department of Justice as required under the law during the search.

In his decision, Abarintos gave the prosecution’s evidence more credence compared to the accused-appellant’s evidence.

“The prosecution witness were able to give a clear and consistent account of what transpired during the implementation of the search warrant especially the fact that illegal drugs were actually found in the rented room of the accused-appellant and his live-in partner Daisy,” the decision reads.

He said accused-appellant failed to present evidence to overturn the presumption of the regularity of the performance of duty of the police. —/BRP (FREEMAN)