Woman gets 40 years for possession of 200 kilos of shabu

A Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge sentenced to 40 years in prison a woman accused of possession of more than 200 kilos of metamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu. Branch 231 Judge Cesar Ylagan also ordered Sandra Lim to pay a fine of P1 million for violation of Article III, Section 16 of RA 6425 or the (Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972.)

The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) protested the sentence, wanting the death penalty imposed on Lim.

But Reynaldo Esmeralda, then the head of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Special Task Force that led the raid in Lim’s unit, said he expected the judge to give the minimum sentence for such offense considering that the was not able to establish Lim’s alleged membership in an international drug ring. Had this been proven, Esmeralda said, there could have been better chances for the death penalty to be imposed in Lim’s case. Nevertheless, Esmeralda said he would confer with 2nd Assistant City Prosecutor Bernabe Augustos Solis on the possibility of filing a motion for reconsideration for Ylagan’s sentence.

"The sheer volume of the drug found should also merit the death sentence," Esmeralda said. The drugs found in Lim’s condominium, totalling 247 kilos, was the agency’s biggest haul, he added.

Esmeralda said the NBI believed that Lim was a member of either a drug triad or the 14-K drug syndicates. They also believed that her husband, Michael, a pure Chinese, is the druglord. Michael Lim has since fled the country.

Lim, who is in her early 30s and claimed to be a housewife, was arrested by virtue of an arrest warrant in April 2001 in Quezon City.

The NBI said the conviction of Sandra Lim for illegal drugs would surely boost the government campaign against illegal drugs.

"It’s good the court appreciated our effort and the evidence we presented (against Lim)," said Ruel Lasala, head of the NBI’s Reaction, Arrest and Interdiction Division (RAID).

Lasala attended the promulgation of Lim’s case at the sala of Pasay City Judge Cesar Ylagan yesterday afternoon. Lasala raided Lim’s house in the city and seized the shabu in Pasay City on Dec. 26, 2000.

"It would surely bolster the government’s anti-drug campaign," he said.

Initially, NBI agents seized some 247.58-kilo of shabu from Lim. The NBi had to reweigh the shabu in May last year, following reports that about 8.67 kilos of the shabu haul could be missing. After the re-weighing and an investigation, authorities learned that three NBI evidence custodians lost 7.37 kilos of shabu from the evidence vault.

The disappearance of the shabu was blamed to Forensic Chemistry Division (FCD) acting chief Idabel Pagulayan, Dangerous Drugs Section head Constancia Salonga, and Evidence Custodian designate Lucia Gonzales.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco placed the three on floating status indefinitely, were also charged administratively with gross neglect of duty nad misconduct before the Ombudsman.

In his 28-page decision, Ylagan said that the principal issue in the case to determine Lim’s innocence or guilt was the "question of possession".

The prosecution and defense centered on proving the ownership of Unit 706 Somerset Condominium in Leveriza St., Pasay, where the illegal drugs were discovered stashed in traveling bags along with assault rifles, handguns, ammunitions, and bullet proof vests in a raid conducted by the NBI on Dec. 26, 2000.

After two years of trial, Ylagan gave credence to the testimony of prosecution witness Edgardo Escorial, a factory machine operator, who was asked to sign documents by his Chinese employer’s brother, one David Yang, for the supposed transfer of the title of a vacant lot, which turned out to be Lim’s condominium unit.