3rd Chinese gets death for shabu

A Malabon Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge yesterday sentenced a Chinese national to death for possession and sale of nearly 16 kilos of shabu.

Judge Benjamin Aquino Jr. of RTC Branch 72 found Su Zhi Shan, alias Alvin Ching So, guilty beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced him to die by lethal injection. Aquino also ordered Su to pay the maximum fine of P10,000,000.

Su is the third Chinese national to be meted the death penalty for drug trafficking by three different courts in Metro Manila in the past three days.

As clerk of court Digna Villanueva read the verdict, the bespectacled Su, who covered his head and the lower portion of his face with a blue towelette throughout the proceedings, turned crimson and wept silently. This was the first time for Aquino to impose the death penalty.

The police arrested Su after he handed a plastic bag containing 495 grams of shabu to PO1 Christopher Guste who acted as the buyer in exchange for P3,000 during an entrapment operation.

Policemen later seized 16 transparent bags containing shabu during a subsequent raid on his residence in Barangay Portero, Malabon. The seized bags of shabu weighed a total of 15,076 grams.

In his defense, Su claimed that he was a victim of a police frame-up.

Aquino, however, was not convinced by Su’s defense.

The judge gave more credence to the fact that the buy-bust operation was brought about by a tip from a confidential informant and that a 24-hour surveillance of Su was conducted by the police.

"Mere denials, claims of evidence planting, and a further claim of hulidap cannot prevail. Denial like alibi is inherently a weak defense and cannot prevail over the positive and credible testimony of a prosecution witness that the accused committed the crime," Aquino said in his decision. – Nikko Dizon