Solgen urged: Oppose lower sentence against ‘protector narco-cop’

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – The Office of the Solicitor General has been urged to appeal the downgrading of a sentence against a former police officer tagged as the protector of a shabu laboratory in Naguilian town in this province.

Government prosecutors wanted Solicitor General Jose Calida to appeal before the Supreme Court a ruling issued by the Court of Appeals (CA) downgrading the life imprisonment meted against former police superintendent Dionicio Borromeo.

In a ruling issued on June 29, the CA nullified the life sentence meted by a lower court against Borromeo to 12 to 20 years imprisonment and the P10-million fine to P500,000.

The former police official was convicted for being a protector of a shabu laboratory in Barangay Bimmotobot, Naguilian, which was busted by authorities in July 2008.

In June 2013, Judge Ferdinand Fe of the Regional Trial Court of La Union sentenced Borromeo to life imprisonment and a fine of P10 million.

The prosecution panel said the CA committed grave abuse of discretion when it ruled that Borromeo was merely indicted as protector.

The prosecution panel – composed of La Union Prosecutor Danilo Bumacod, and Assistant Prosecutors Manuel Dulnuan Jr. and Gaudencio Valdez Jr. – said the CA found Borromeo guilty of conspiracy, but it downgraded the sentence.

Borromeo is a former chief of the Dagupan City police.