Filipino sentenced to 25 years for terror plots in US

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MANILA — A Filipino Citizen residing in California was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for terror plots, according to a report from the local news wire, City News Service.

A district court in the United States convicted Ralph Kenneth DeLeon, 26 along with 36-year-old Sohiel Omar Kabir of Pomona.

DeLeon was convicted of conspiring “murder or maim members of the armed services overseas and conspiring to kill employees of the United States.”

He migrated from Laguna Philippines and is now a permanent US resident but remains a Filipino citizen with a valid Philippine passport.

The prosecution pointed out that DeLeon was a drop out of Cal State San Bernandino where he was studying business administration.

They insisted that DeLeon sold his car to be able to travel to Afghanistan and meet with other terrorists in the region.

DeLeon’s lawyers however described him as “harmless” and emphasized that the threats were no more than just big talk as he hang out with his friends at hookah bars and smoked marijuana.

US District Judge Virginia Phillips, however, was not convinced saying:

“We’ve seen all too often how little it takes for young men to cause havoc and loss of life. Just because his plan didn’t come to fruition, it doesn’t reduce the seriousness of what he intended to do.”