HABITUAL DRUG OFFENDER GETS LIFE TERM FOR DRUG PUSHING

A judge of the Malabon City regional trial court (RTC) has sentenced to
life imprisonment a habitual drug offender almost two years after his
arrest for drug pushing.

In an eight-page decision, Judge Benjamin M. Aquino of Malabon City RTC
Branch 72 also ordered the accused, Nilo Tubig, of Navotas, Metro Manila to
pay a fine of R500,000.

Judge Aquino also sentenced him to 14 years imprisonment and a fine of
P300,000 for another case of drug possession.

Court records showed that operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement
Agency (PDEA) arrested the accused Oct. 26, 2002 after PDEA received
information on the rampant selling of illegal drugs by the accused in his
neighborhood.

A team was immediately dispatched to Lacson St., Navotas with a policeman,
Police Officer 2 Rodolfo Laxamana, acting as a poseur-buyer.

On a pre-arranged signal, policemen arrested Tubig after handing .11 gram
of shabu to Laxamana in exchange for P200 marked money.

When frisked by the arresting police officers, they also found in his
possession sachets containing illegal drugs.

During the trial, the accused denied the accusation saying that the arrest
was a frame-up to extort money from him.

But the judge gave more credence to the testimony of PO2 Laxamana saying
that law enforcers are presumed to have regularly performed their duties in
the absence of proof negating the same.

He said positive identification prevails over simple denials of the accused
adding that denial is inherently weak in the face of positive and credible
testimony of the prosecution witness.