After four years in jail, man gets shorter term for crime

The court handed down a 3-year sentence on a man who had already spent almost four years in jail for snatching a cellular phone in Talisay City in 2002.

Regional Trial Court judge Geraldine Faith Econg ruled that Rolando Nacional was guilty of snatching P4,300 phone from one Aloha Cabreros. But just the same, Nacional is now a free man.

"Utangan pa gani niya ang gobyerno," one of the court employees said.

Cabreros said she was waiting for a ride at barangay Dumlog, Talisay City on July 22, 2002 when three men on a motorcycle suddenly stopped near where she was.

While she was using her phone at that time, one of the three men approached her and grabbed the phone.

When Nacional was presented to her at the police station in the city, she immediately recognized him as the one who ran away with her phone. - Rene U. Borromeo