Marijuana trader gets life term, fined P2 million

By Emely Cayandag- Fama

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- A marijuana trader, who had been in the watch list of drug personalities in the Cordillera, was recently sentenced to life term and P2 million fine by the Regional Trial Court here.

Sentenced to life imprisonment by Judge Danilo P. Camacho was Randy B. Camada for illegal possession of 17 kilos of marijuana.

Camacho is the presiding judge of RTC Branch 62, First Judicial Region, La Trinidad, in which the case was heard for nearly three years.

Camada, then 20, single, high school graduate, farmer, native and resident of Palina, Kibungan, Benguet was nabbed with the illegal drugs worth P425,000 in front of an elementary school in Eastern Buyagan here Nov. 8, 2008 around 3:30 p.m. during an anti-drug operation by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency – Cordillera Administrative Region. He was convicted Sept. 21.

Gil Cesario P. Castro, PDEA regional director lauded the decision of the court saying “getting convictions compensates the dedication of anti-narcotic operatives at work, who spend most of their days and nights undercover just to build drug cases against enemies of Cordillera society.”