Chinese national gets life for drug trafficking

Updated (8:22 p.m.

MANILA, Philippines — A Chinese national has been found guilty of violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, the fifth Chinese convicted for drug-related cases under the Duterte administration.

Shi Jianjia was meted with a penalty of life imprisonment.

He was arrested in 2017 along Chino Roces Avenue in Makati. Authorities confiscated 2.28 kilograms of shabu (crystal meth) from him.

Shi was the fifth Chinese national convicted in five months since four others were convicted in connection with the floating shabu laboratory.

Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Selma Palacio Alaras said Shi failed to present evidence to disprove the prosecution’s evidence.

“Accused could only offer bare denial,” read the Court’s ruling.

The prosecution, on the other hand, was able to present witnesses — a village official, the police officer who is also a forensic chemist from the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory, the chemist from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and the police officers who participated in the buy-bust operation.

The prosecution also presented the seized items from Shi.

“Given the evidence available in this case, the prosecution was able to prove with moral certainty that accused Shi Jiajia is guilty of the offense charged,” the Court said.

Aside from imprisonment, he was also required to pay a fine of P500,000.

“This case shows anew the DOJ’s determination to prosecution all drug lords, foreign and domestic, [and] that the war against drugs must continue,” Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, lead prosecutor of the case said. /jpv

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