Man meted 15 years for shabu possession

Regional Trial Court Branch 58 Judge Gabriel Ingles yesterday ordered the imprisonment of a resident of Hipodromo for 15 years after he was found guilty of shabu possession. The convict was also slapped with a P300,000 fine.

Ingles rejected the alibi of 38-year-old Socrates Garcia that he was framed up by the policemen who he said wanted to extort P15,000 from him after he was arrested in Cahipa, Hipodromo on the evening of January 24, last year.

The court gave more credence to the testimonies of policemen Oliver Glodove and Raul Magdadaro who arrested Garcia while he was examining a small pack of shabu near an electric post at about 9 p.m. of January 24.

The policemen said they were conducting patrol in barangay Hipodromo when they sighted Garcia holding the pack and examining its contents, which were believed to be shabu.

But Garcia claimed that he and three other male friends were just talking that evening when two women approached them and asked where they could buy shabu.

Garcia added that he was taken by surprise at the presence of policemen, and then the arrest, when he and his friends only told the women “they have no idea.”

He claimed that a police asset demanded P15,000 for the settlement of the case, but he refused to give in to the demand. However, he said, his sister gave P4,000 to the policemen to downgrade the case from drug pushing to mere possession.

But Garcia failed to present his sister before the court.

His alibi was rejected by the court, which said that “it is not credible because it can easily be invented and is the usual defense in cases involving violation of the dangerous drugs law.” — Rene U. Borromeo/MEEV