Man gets life term for selling P100 ‘shabu’

BACOLOD CITY—For selling P100 worth of illegal drugs, a resident of this city will spend the rest of his life in jail.

Joel Dumago Agbas of Barangay Banago here was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of violating the Dangerous Drugs Act for selling a sachet of shabu worth P100.

Judge Edgar Garvilles of Bacolod Regional Trial Court Branch 47 also ordered Agbas to pay a fine of P500,000.

The judge also directed that the one sachet of shabu weighing 50 milligrams that served as evidence in the case against Agbas be turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and destroyed.

He also ordered the commitment of Agbas to the national penitentiary to serve his sentence.

PO1 Robert Torreno of the Regional Mobile Group told the court that he and other police officers were at Barangay Banago at 10:35 p.m. of Sept. 14, 2004, to conduct a buy-bust operation against Agbas who, an informant said, was selling drugs.

Torreno and PO2 Gary Muñoz acted as buyers and negotiated to buy shabu from Agbas using marked money.

After the transaction was completed, the policemen arrested Agbas.

Agbas denied selling shabu to the police officers and claimed that his arrest was without basis.

In his decision, Judge Garvilles didn’t give weight to the denial of Agbas in the absence of evidence that Torreno was motivated by reasons other than his duty to enforce the law.

“In fact, the accused was caught in flagrante delicto in a legitimate entrapment operation and was positively identified by the police  officer who conducted the operation,” the judge said.