The Special Court for Drug Cases sentenced a man to life imprisonment for the sale of 0.01gram of shabu, and to pay a fine of P500,000 Friday, at the Hall of Justice in Dumaguete City.

Cristitu Ramirez was arrested in a buy-bust operation by joint operative of the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Dumaguete City Police station at Zone 4, Barangay Looc, Dumaguete City last April 28, 2008.

He had sold one heat-sealed transparent plastic with the shabu to poseur buyer on said date.

The court found the testimony of an NBI agent, the sole eyewitness, to the transaction to be clear, straightforward and worthy of credence. The accused tried to wiggle out of the case by claiming that the informant-poseur buyer was not presented in court. The court ruled that the non-presentation of the informant-poseur buyer cannot prejudice the prosecution’s theory on the case.

He was also sentenced to suffer an indeterminate penalty of 12 years and one day as minimum to 14 years as maximum term, and to pay a fine of P400,000 after he was also found guilty of illegal possession of 0.12 gram of methamphetamine hydrochloride, a dangerous drug, contained in two heat sealed transparent plastic sachets, which he threw away when after he was about to be arrested after the buy-bust operation.

This was the first conviction for 2011 by the drugs court in Negros Oriental.*RG

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