BAUANG– A former police chief of Dagupan City who was accused of being a protector of a clandestine shabu laboratory busted by authorities in July 2008 was sentenced on July 5 to life imprisonment by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) here.

Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo, currently assigned as deputy director of the Cavite police provincial office, was found “guilty beyond reasonable doubt” of protecting the operation of the shabu laboratory located in Barangay Binmotobot, Naguilian, La Union, a neighboring province of Pangasinan.

RTC Judge Ferdinand Fe of Branch 33 promulgated the life sentence and also ordered Borromeo to pay a fine of P10 million.

Borromeo was not present in court when the sentence against him and his co-accused PO1 Joey Abang was handed down.

Abang was sentenced by the court to suffer a maximum of 20 years imprisonment and to pay a fine of P500,000.

Borromeo reportedly was on sick leave but subsequently surrendered two days later to his superior in the Cavite Provincial Police Office.

Borromeo, then chief of police of Dagupan, was indicted as protector of the shabu laboratory based on the confession of Dante Tomas Palaganas, the arrested caretaker of the illegal drug facility who turned state witness.

Palaganas is now under the Witness Protection Program of the Department of Justice.

Borromeo, a member of Philippine Military Academy Class 1989, was released from the La Union provincial jail in February 2011 after posting a P1 million bail and resumed his work in the Philippine National Police.

During the trial, Abang was identified to have served as Borromeo’s bodyguard and handler of Palaganas.

HAPPY PROSECUTORS

Prosecutors Danilo Bumacod, Gaudencio Valdez Jr., and Manuel Dulnuan, all of the La Union Provincial Office, expressed elation over the decision of the court after prosecuting the case for almost five years.

Bumacud said the conviction of Borromeo is a vindication to all stakeholders of La Union who have been very supportive of the prosecution.

“Definitive justice has finally had its day and we aren’t all that hopeless after all. The Honorable Judge Fe made it happen,” Bumacud said.

During the investigation, prosecutors found probable cause to indict Borromeo, Joselito Artuz, the financier, and several unnamed Chinese citizens who served as chemists in the shabu laboratory.

Artuz and the Chinese men, however, remain at- large.

All those indicted were accused of “willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously manufacturing, producing, processing shabu, directly by means of chemical synthesis” which is a violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act.

The documents submitted by prosecutors indicated that Borromeo and Artuz had been in constant communication with Palaganas.

The communication started from the time the two began the search for a site for the laboratory until July 9, 2008 when the facility was raided by joint operatives of the La Union Police, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency regional office, municipal health office of Naguilian and other operating units.

Authorities said around a billion pesos worth of shabu had already been manufactured at the laboratory during its more than one year operation.

The group used a piggery business as front for the illegal activity.

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