6 DRUG DEALERS JAILED 40 YEARS EACH BY COURT

BAGUIO CITY—Six drug pushers were sentenced to 40 years in jail each for
possessing and trying to sell marijuana to anti-narcotics agents in a buy
bust in August 2000.

The ruling was handed down Wednesday by Executive Judge Antonio Reyes of
the Baguio Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Branch 61 in two separate decisions.

Convicted in the first decision were William Bakakew and Marcos Alindayo,
alias Ben Alindayo. They were arrested while selling 16 kilos of marijuana
to a drug agent disguised a buyer on August 12, 2000.

In his other decision, Reyes found John Alindayo, Marcelo Ya-os, Bugnosen
Palangyo and Mino Ciriaco guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the same
offense. They were caught selling more than 15 kilos of marijuana to drug
agents, also on August 12, 2000.

But Reyes acquitted in the second decision, two other accused, Samuel
Ciriaco and Anto Ciriaco.

Reyes said the prosecution did not present strong evidence to link the two
to the charges.

An official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Cordillera
Administrative Region (PDEA-CAR) recalled that their agents conducted
simultaneous operations on August 12, 2000, which resulted in the arrest of
the convicted pushers.

Referring to his first decision, Reyes said Bakakew and Alindayo could not
be convicted for selling prohibited drugs but were liable for possession of
dangerous drugs.

Reyes said the two had a common design and conspiracy to commit the crime,
explaining that they were together when one of them showed the contraband
to the anti-narcotics agent, disguised as buyer.

"This is clear from the fact that when they alighted from the Tamaraw FX
taxi, which they used in going to the place of [the] buy-bust operation,
they readily showed the contraband they had to the poseur-buyer," Reyes said.

"Even if only one of them has possession of the contraband, the surrounding
circumstances indicate that they are together in committing the crime,"
Reyes ruled.

In his second decision, Reyes said the prosecution proved beyond reasonable
doubt that Alindayo, Ya-os, Palangyo and Ciriaco conspired to sell 19
bricks of marijuana to the drug agents.

He said: "It is a settled rule that conspiracy need not to be proved by
direct evidence or prior agreement on the commission of the crime as the
same can be inferred from the conduct of the accused before, during, and
after the commission of the crime, showing that they acted in unison with
each other, evincing a common purpose or design."