4 CHINESE GET LIFE TERMS FOR DRUGS

A Pasig Regional Trial Court judge on Friday found four Chinese guilty
of drug trafficking and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

In a 30-page decision of Judge Leoncio Panolo of Branch 264 of the
Pasig RTC, Chua Chi Li, Huang Ho Wei, Joey Lu and Xingfu Wang were
found guilty of manufacturing and possessing shabu and fined P1
million each.

State Prosecutor Formaran III was satisfied with the court's decision,
but told reporters that legislators should enact a law that would
penalize persons who establish clandestine laboratories.

"[Establishing and maintaining clandestine laboratories] should be
considered aggravating circumstances to the case. Under the present
law, there is no penalty for establishing such facilities," he said.

Members of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption said, however,
that the judge should have given the four convicted drug traffickers
the death penalty.

Martin Dino, VACC president and Dante Jimenez, chair, believe there
might be something wrong with the judicial system, because this was
the fifth trial involving big-time drug traffickers where the convicts
were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Dino pointed out that a person found guilty of possessing a mere 50
grams of shabu could be sentenced to death under Republic Act 9165, or
the Dangerous Drugs Act. The four who were convicted should have been
sentenced to death, because they were manufacturers, not mere
possessors, of illegal drugs, he added.

However, the head of the special police task force on illegal drugs,
Edgardo Aglipay, was satisfied and saw nothing wrong with the court's
decision.

The convicts were arrested on November 6, 2001, when police raided a
clandestine shabu laboratory in Pasig City. At least 200 kilograms of
shabu were seized from the convicts.