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.