Trisikad driver gets life term for selling shabu

A trisikad driver was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of selling shabu in sitio Laray, barangay Inayawan last year.

Judge Gabriel Ingles of the Regional Trial Court branch 58 found Arcadio Abangan guilty of violating section 5, Article II of the Republic Act 9165 otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

Abangan was arrested in a buy bust operation conducted by Pardo police in the evening of July 19, 2005. SPO4 Jaime Repompo, who led the operation, said that they have conducted a two-week surveillance before the actual operation that led to Abangan's arrest.

Repompo said that Abangan was caught in the act of receiving the P200 buy bust money from a poseur buyer. Abangan, however, denied the charges saying he was attending to his trisikad in front of the Laray chapel when the police approached him and eventually arrested him without informing him of the reason behind the arrest.

At the police station, Abangan said he was surprised when the police presented a pack of white crystalline substance together with P200 allegedly taken from him.

Abangan tried to convince the court that the evidence presented against him was planted but Ingles said he was not persuaded by the uncorroborated testimony of the accused.

"The sole testimony of the accused cannot constitute clear and convincing evidence required by the Supreme Court to establish the planting of evidence," Ingles said in his decision.

The court also ordered Abangan to pay a fine of P500,000 as accessory penalty. - Fred P. Languido