Food vendor gets 20 years for shabu

CEBU, Philippines - A 60-year-old food vendor was sentenced to 20 years in jail for illegal drug possession after a raid in house Plastikan, Duljo Fatima, Cebu City fours years ago yielded almost 12 grams of shabu.

Aside from imprisonment, Judge Meinrado Paredes of the Regional Trial Court branch 13 also ordered Vitallana Abellana to pay the fine of P400,000.

The judge also ordered that the evidences recovered from the house of Abellana—one heat-sealed transparent plastic packets of white crystalline substance weighing 5.62 grams and another five plastic sachets weighing 5.81 grams—be confiscated in favor of the government and be destroyed.

 Abellana pleaded not guilty during her preliminary investigation.

According to David Patriana, forensic chemical officer, the evidences recovered from the accused were positive for the presence of Methylamphetamine Hydrochloride locally known as shabu.

On June 26, 2006 at around 4 a.m., a team of policemen led by Supt. Pablo G. Labra, and Insp. Cresencio B. Cordero, Jr. raided the house of Abellana by virtue of a search warrant issued by the court.

The illegal drugs were found inside a shoebox at the ground floor of the house and at the second floor placed inside a plastic Orocan cabinet.

The witnesses of the defense, Beverly Abellana and Cherry Ann Abellana, daughters of the accused said they do not know who placed the plastic packets of shabu that were recovered in their house.

However, they claimed that their father was a fugitive from justice and was a drug pusher and user. — THE FREEMAN