Man gets life term for having shabu

A man, who worked as a painter and dealt fighting cocks for a living, was yesterday convicted to life imprisonment for possession of ten packs of shabu, which weighed a total of 54.42 grams.

Regional Trial Court judge Gabriel Ingles dismissed the defense argument that the shabu found by the raiding team was planted, and ruled that Romelito Flores, of sitio Mahayahay in barangay Calamba, Cebu City, was guilty of possession the shabu the authorities had seized from him.

On March 24 last year, a police team led by Supt. Paul Labra raided the house of Flores to implement a search warrant, actually for illegal firearms, but found also shabu in a room upstairs.

The policemen got a .38 cal. revolver, five live rounds and P86,000 in cash, but they also discovered a shoe box containing a pencil case filled with 10 plastic packs of shabu. This prompted them to arrest and detain Flores.

At the arraignment, Flores pleaded not guilty to the charges and countered that the police just planted the shabu on him.

Flores said he, his wife and three children were sleeping in the house when policemen barged in and told them to go downstairs while they searched the room. Later on, the police showed him the shoebox, handcuffed and detained him.

But tanod Renato Mirabilis, who testified for the defense, said he and colleague Marlon Barillano, even Flores and his wife were present while the police combed the room. Everybody saw the illegal items the police had found and confiscated.

The seized shabu was not indicated in the warrant but Ingles deemed the seizure as valid citing the "plain view" doctrine.

Ingles said the warrant justified the entry of the policemen to the room to search for firearms and ammunition, but the discovery of shabu was inadvertent and came as a consequence of the search.

He said the search was not an exploratory one to begin with so the police could not just ignore another illegal item they found while searching for the specified item in the warrant.

In the five-page decision, the court found Flores "guilty" as charged and meted him a penalty of life imprisonment, and a fine of P550,000. - Liv G. Campo