Pubdate: Thu, 01 Jul 2004
Source: Manila Bulletin (The Philippines)
Contact:  http://www.mb.com.ph/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/906
Author: Herbert Osio Jr., Correspondent

DEBORAH SUN'S DAUGHTER GETS 8 YEARS FOR DRUGS

A PASIG City court sentenced the daughter of former actress Deborah Sun to 
eight years imprisonment after authorities caught her, along with three 
others, holding a shabu session inside her house in San Juan four years ago.

In a 13-page decision Judge Celso Lavina of the Pasig RTC Branch 71 gave 
Lailanie Salvador, of 125-B F. Roxas Street, Barangay Tibagan, San Juan, 
the longer jail term while her companions, Anna Marie Gomez, Maria Lourdes 
Silverio and Ramon Mapili were each sentenced to only four years imprisonment.

The court gave credence to the testimony of the members of the defunct 
Presidential Antiorga-nized Crime Task Force who raided Salvador's house on 
August 27, 1999, and recovered 10.2 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride 
(shabu), which the four were using.

The court dismissed the group's alibi that the antinarcotics agents planted 
the evidence on them as the "weakest defense" and ruled that it cannot 
prevail over the positive identification of the prosecution witnesses.

Mapili, Silverio and Gomez also claimed to investigators that they were 
only in the house to pick up the personal belongings of Salvador's former 
boyfriend, a certain Titus Diaz.

The seven-man team of the task force's antinarcotics unit raided Salvador's 
house on the strength of a search warrant issued by Judge Ralph Lantion of 
the Manila RTC. The operatives surprised the four at the second floor of 
the house and recovered the shabu paraphernalia the suspects threw away in 
their surprise. Also taken from Salvador were .28 grams of marijuana fruit 
tops, which was the reason for her heavier sentence.

Convicts Silverio and Gomez reportedly jumped bail during the trial.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D