2 Chinese drug traffickers get life

MANILA, Philippines - Two Chinese nationals arrested by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents for drug trafficking seven years ago were finally sentenced to life by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court the other day.

Judge Severino de Castro found William Ong and Willy Sy Yu guilty of conspiring to sell some five kilos of “shabu” in a drug bust in 2003.

 PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago said yesterday Ong, while serving his sentence at the New Bilibid Prisons’ maximum-security center in Muntinlupa City for a previous conviction, continued to operate his drug network.

“They can’t do this unless they have ‘strong connections’ inside,” Santiago said adding the PDEA “will get to the bottom of the case.”

He said Ong conspired with another Chinese national, Yu, who was caught in the act of selling “shabu” to a PDEA poseur-buyer. Yu later implicated Ong as having masterminded the operation.    - Jerry Botial