3 get death for peddling shabu in QC

The Quezon City regional trial court sentenced to death yesterday three men arrested by police for drug peddling and possession of a kilogram of shabu two years ago.

The three men, Edicio Lopez, Carlos de los Santos and Restituto Binua, denied the charge in court, claiming that policemen picked them up and brought them to a room where they were threatened with prosecution if they did not shell out money.

Judge Diosdado Peralta, however, brushed aside their defense and upheld the testimony of a four-member police team which conducted the buy-bust operation following a tip from an informer.

While prosecutors did not offer in court the testimony of a confidential agent, the judge said such was not fatal to a successful prosecution of the case because the agent’s testimony was merely corroborative.

He said the testimony of Senior Police Officer 2 Celestino de la Cruz, who posed as the buyer, was credible. The sting operation happened at around 7 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2000 at the parking area of the ShoeMart Mall on North Avenue, where police seized from the men a blue plastic bag containing 987.5 grams of the regulated drug wrapped in a transparent, self-sealing plastic bag.

Under a law restoring capital punishment, the amount of the drug seized from the men warranted the death penalty. The men had offered to sell the drug for P450,000, the prosecution said. – Romel Bagares