Tourist guide gets life term for illegal drugs

BAGUIO CITY – A drug pusher working as tourist guide was sentenced to life imprisonment here nearly 11 months after he was caught selling shabu across a hotel here by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Cordillera.

Antonio C. Reyes, presiding judge of the First Judicial Region Regional Trial Court Branch 61 in this city sentenced Roland V. Arquillo to life imprisonment and pay a fine of P5 million.

He was also sentenced to additional 12 to 20 years incarceration and to pay P300,000 violation of illegal drugs laws.

“This Court has observed, through the overwhelming evidence presented by the prosecution, that there was a legitimate entrapment operation conducted by the PDEA team in the afternoon of Oct. 31, 2009 that led to the arrest of the accused,” Retes said in his decision.

“The prosecution’s evidence fully maintained the legitimacy of the buy-bust operation and that the arrest of the accused was valid together with the confiscation of three other sachets of shabu.”

Meanwhile, on the part of Arquillo, the decision said “His (Arquillo’s) defense of denial and frame-up are nothing new to this Court. These defenses, like alibi, have been viewed with disfavor by our courts for being easily be concocted and are used as a common defense ploy in most prosecutions for violations of the Dangerous Drugs Act.