Drug lord gets life sentence

A Parañaque City Regional Trial Court judge sentenced to a mere life imprisonment notorious drug lord Rafael Madraso who was caught selling two kilos of shabu to undercover police agents at a parking lot of an exclusive Parañaque nightclub two years ago.

Judge Zosimo Escano of RTC Branch 259 also ordered Madraso, 66, resident of 2680 F.B. Harrison St., Pasay City, to pay the court a fine of P1 million.

In his decision, Escano said that absence of an aggravating circumstance led him to hand down a life jail term instead of the death penalty as was expected considering the large amount of shabu involved in the case.

Madraso was arrested by Philippine National Police (PNP)-Region 4 intelligence agents after he was caught handing over two kilos of shabu for P1 million at the parking lot of the Skytrek nightclub along Ninoy Aquino Avenue at around 7:25 p.m. of March 11, 1999.

In his defense, Madraso denied there was an entrapment operation, saying he was merely arrested for no reason by a group of policemen who had demanded P5 million from him in exchange for his release.

Madraso’s arrest triggered the relief of then PNP chief, Deputy Director General Roberto Lastimoso, who was accused by Senior Superintendent Francisco Villaroman and Reynor Gonzales, of interfering in the case and asking for the release of Madraso for the reason that the arrested suspect was a government asset in the anti-illegal drugs campaign.

Villaroman was then the chief of the Southern Tagalog police Intelligence Division while Gonzales was the head of the PNP-Anti-Narcotics Group.

Madraso, in subsequent investigations, claimed he was the friend of Dr. Billy Jaca, a shadowy Cebu-based ophthalmologist with close links to Lastimoso.

Escano had ruled in favor of the policemen who arrested Madraso saying he saw no irregularity in the buy-bust operation that led to Madraso’s apprehension.

The judge also noted that Madraso had given conflicting statements during court hearings, casting doubts on the veracity of his whole testimony.

Meanwhile, a Chinese national was acquitted by the same court of drug possession charges involving more than two kilos of shabu that were recovered from two rooms in her apartment unit during a raid by Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force agents in August 1999.

Cleared of drug charges by Escano was Edith Chua, of Kai Pe Hong, 30, married, native of Fujian province, China, and resident of 17 Boeing St., Concorde Village, Parañaque.

Chua was arrested after a raid conducted by PAOCTF agents in her house in the early morning hours of Aug. 27, 1999 and yielded 2,015.36 grams of shabu.

In her defense, Chua said she did not own the seized shabu explaining that she and her family shared their apartment with friends and relatives Wilson Tan, Ricky Cu, Ah Lui, and Lorenzo Chua.

Chua said the rooms where the shabu were found were used by Lorenzo Chua and Tan who were then in China.

In his decision, Escano ruled that the prosecution failed to prove that Chua, indeed, owned the seized illegal drugs.