Lawyer Ruel Lasala, chief of the NBI-Anti Drug Task Force, said Gun Jie Ang had posted bail and when Manila Judge Alejandro Bijasa of Regional Trial Court Branch 2 handed down the conviction, he could not be located.
"We are now hunting him down by virtue of the court order," Lasala said.
Ang, Hong Yen E, alias Benjie Ong, and Tsien Tsien Chua were found guilty of violating Republic Act 6425, or the law on the sale of illegal drugs.
Bijasa also ordered the three to pay fine of P500,000 each and ordered them deported without further proceedings immediately after the service of sentence.
NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco welcomed the conviction, which was a major accomplishment in the government’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs.
The three were arrested inside a fastfood chain shortly after a buy-bust operation in Magsaysay street in Binondo, Manila on Sept. 5, 2001.
Court records showed that Lasala received information that a certain Benjie Ong was engaged in large distribution of shabu in Binondo.
Lasala tapped his men to contact the drug dealer, who turned out to be Yen.
NBI agents contacted Yen, who agreed to sell shabu. Before the entrapment, a Chinese looking couple – Chua and Ang arrived in the area.
It was Chua who handed the shabu to an undercover agent.
The three denied the charges and claimed they were victims of a set-up.
But the judge brushed aside their allegations. — Cecille Suerte Felipe