The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the life imprisonment and the P500,000 fine imposed by a Makati City Regional Trial Court in 2019 on a foreigner who yielded 2,815.5 grams of shabu in a buy-bust operation conducted by the police in 2018 in Makati.
Affirmed was the conviction of Shi Jianjia, a Chinese, who was identified in the trial court proceedings as “engaged in the smuggling and distribution of illegal drugs” in the Philippines.
Shi was arrested by members of the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (PNP-DEG) in Barangay Pio del Pilar on a tip from an informant in late 2017 and after several days of surveillance. Confiscated from him, among others, were two plastic packs containing more than 2.8 kilos of shabu.
On April 4, 2018, a criminal case was filed against him in court for violation of Section 5 (sale of illegal drugs), Article 2 of Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
On May 2, 2019, the trial court convicted Shi. It ordered the turnover of the seized illegal drug to the government for proper disposition.
Shi elevated the case to the CA on appeal. Aside from denying ownership of the seized illegal drugs, he also claimed that the identity of the plastic pack was not established because the police failed to weigh them before turning them to the crime laboratory for examination.
He also claimed that the police failed to follow the provisions of the law in the handling of the seized illegal drugs.
In affirming the ruling of the Makati RTC, the CA, in a decision written by Associate Justice Fernanda Lampas Peralta, said it scrutinized meticulously – in line with Supreme Court (SC) decisions and provisions of RA 9165 – the proceedings during the buy-bust operation conducted by the police and in the trial court, particularly in the observance of the procedures in the handling of the seized illegal drugs.
“Considering that the prosecution was able to satisfactorily establish an unbroken chain of custody, the integrity and evidentiary value of the illegal drugs confiscated from accused-appellant (Shi) were preserved,” it said.
CA Associate Justices Zenaida T. Galapate Laguilles and Carlito B. Calpatura concurred in the decision that was promulgated last week.
