SC upholds life imprisonment for Laguna drug pusher

MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed a life imprisonment sentence imposed by a court in Calamba City, Laguna on a man found guilty of possessing and trading shabu.

In a resolution uploaded online on March 23, the SC found Angelo Jimenez guilty on two drug charges and ordered him to pay a fine of PHP800,000.

In denying his appeal, the high court dismissed Jimenez’s claim that it was improbable that he would immediately sell drugs to a policeman whom he just met during a buy-bust operation in Bay, Laguna in 2015.

“On this score, it is settled that drug dealers are known to sell their goods even to strangers. Some of them ply their wares wherever prospective customers may be found. Drug pushers have, thus, become increasingly daring, dangerous, and openly defiant of the law,” the SC said.

The tribunal also turned down the accused’s claim that the supposed confidential informant who tipped off police officers about his drug activities should have been presented as a witness for the prosecution against him.

“The confidentiality of the informant’s identity ought to be protected in deference to his invaluable services to law enforcement. Only when the testimony of the informant is considered absolutely essential in obtaining the conviction of the culprit should the need to protect his security be disregarded,” the SC said.

The prosecution said the operation to get Jimenez came after authorities obtained information that he was engaged in illegal drug trade activities at Barangay San Antonio, in Bay, Laguna.

When undercover policemen approached the area, the accused asked one of them if was interested in buying and then received PHP500 in exchange for a plastic sachet containing a substance which later turned out to be shabu.

The suspect later yielded 10 plastic sachets containing shabu.