CA affirms RTC on life sentence verdict for pusher

CEBU, Philippines - A suspected drug pusher will spend his lifetime in jail after the Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction by the Regional Trial Court for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

The Court of Appeals 19th division through associate justice Maria Elisa Sempio Diy upheld Bencent Maturan's conviction for violation of Section 5, Article II of Republic Act 9165.

"There was no evidence adduced showing any irregularity in their conduct of the buy-bust operation based on said information. Neither was there any proof that the prosecution witnesses who were members of the buy-bust operation team, particularly those whose testimonies were in question, were impelled by any ill will or improper motive against accused-appellant which would raise a doubt as to their credibility," the decision read.

In 2012, RTC  Branch 57 Judge Enriqueta Belarmino convicted Maturan and meted him the maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of P500,000.

Maturan, resident of Barangay Basak-San Nicolas, appealed his conviction citing alleged error committed by the trial court.

He said the prosecution failed to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt and that the police officers failed to comply with the requirements enumerated under Section 21 of RA 9165 or custody and disposition of seized dangerous drugs.

"Accused-appellant strongly asserts that he should have been acquitted because the identity of the corpus delicti (body of the crime) is dubious where the marking was not made at the scene of the crime," Maturan said, adding that the identity of the buyer was not established and that the elements of sale was not proven.

But the appellate court ruled that the testimony of intelligence officer 1 (IO1) Nicolas Gomez of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) was straightforward.

"From the foregoing testimony of IO1 Gomez, it is apparent that the sale transaction was consummated. When IO1 Gomez handed over the amount of P500.00 to accused-appellant, the latter handed over to IO1 Gomez the three (3) packs of white granules later identified as shabu," the decision read.

The buy-bust operation was conducted on September 17, 2009 at around 9:20 pm.

Diy said it is settled rule in cases involving violations of Dangerous Drugs Act, credence is given to prosecution witnesses who are police officers for they have presumed to have performed their duties in a "regular manner" unless there was evidence to the contrary.

"In the absence of proof of motive to falsely impute a crime as serious as a violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, the presumption of regularity in the performance of official duty, as well as the findings of the trial court on the credibility of the prosecution witnesses, shall prevail over the accused's self-serving and uncorroborated denial," the court ruled.

Diy said there was no missing link in the custody of the evidence as per testimony of Gomez, the custodian of the evidence from the time of the seizure, to the point the same was placed in the custody of the crime laboratory for examination.— (FREEMAN)