Five Taiwanese nationals were sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday, five years after their arrest for operating a “shabu” laboratory in Parañaque City.
Judge Danilo Suarez of Branch 259 of the Parañaque Regional Court found Cheng Yu-teng, Tsai Horng-jen, Yu Kun-lin, Huang Yung-chun and Hsu Yun-pong guilty of violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
In his July 27 decision, Suarez also ordered them to pay a fine of P8.5 million each. The five convicts were also ordered transferred from Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig, where they were detained during trial, to New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.
The five were arrested on Aug. 19, 2012, when antinarcotics agents caught them in the act manufacturing shabu inside a three-story house at No. 5 Santissima Trinidad Street, Valley 12, Barangay San Antonio.
The seized drugs and raw materials were then valued at P150 million. They include 6.5 kilos of shabu, 4 kilos of ephedrine and 4 kilos of pseudoephedrine.
The convicts operated what authorities described as a “kitchen-type” drug lab.
Three other Taiwanese nationals identified as Yeh James Yuan, Huang Kuan-i and Chang Chuan-tsai, and six Filipinos known only by their aliases were convicted in absentia as they remained at large.