- April 25 was a red letter day for anti drug enforcers in the region as Judge Antonio C. Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 61, the lone drug court in Baguio City, convicted three notorious drug pushers - two of them with life terms.

In an unprecedented move in the history of drug cases in the city, the judge convicted Heidi B. Domingo, Mackay Mapalao, and Willy C. Borce, all in one day.


Domingo was caught by jail officers on July 21, 2010 while attempting to deliver two sachets of shabu and paraphernalia concealed in an emptied toothpaste tube to her older brother, Joseph Merlin B. Domingo IV alias “Biboy”, who was in prison at the Baguio City Jail for a drug case.

In his 10-page decision sentencing Domingo to life imprisonment and to pay a fine of P10 million, Reyes stated, “This Court notes the regularity with which the accused had visited the Baguio City Jail and as it now appears the same was absolutely pretextual or under the guise of visiting her brother and it is not speculation that she may have succeeded in bringing in shabu to the Baguio City Jail during the numerous times she visited her brother. Wherefore, judgment is hereby rendered finding the accused guilty beyond any reasonable doubt and she is hereby sentenced to suffer life imprisonment and to pay a fine of P10,000,000.”
 
Records show that Domingo,45, was earlier apprehended by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency – Cordillera agents in a buy-bust operation on November 18, 2008, at ABCR, Baguio City, where two sachets of shabu were confiscated from her. She was acquitted almost nine months later.

Biboy, who has a string of drug cases, is an identified member of a notorious local drug group and had also been included in the Target List of Drug Personalities in the Cordillera Region.


On the other hand, Mapalao had been meted with a life term and imposed P5 million penalty by Judge Reyes in a five-page Court Decision, accentuating that, “All the variables needed to be factored in for the successful prosecution of the accused in this case were successfully laid down by the prosecution. Thus, the prosecution has accordingly proven the guilt of the accused beyond any reasonable doubt. This Court is constrained to render a judgment of conviction because it is morally certain that the accused had committed the crime he is being charged of.”
 
Mapalao, 54, sunglass vendor, native of Marawi City, Lanao Del Sur, resident of No. 24 Purok 6, Pinsao Pilot Project, Baguio City, was arrested on January 27, 2010 after he sold a sachet of shabu to an operative of PDEA – CAR posing as buyer at Pinsao Pilot Project. He was a watch-listed drug personality in the Cordillera Region and identified as a member of a very notorious local drug group in Baguio.
 
In the other drug case, Borce was sentenced to be incarcerated for 12 years and one day to 20 years, and fined with P300,000 for violating Section 11 (Possession of Dangerous Drugs) of Republic Act (RA) 9165 (The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) and additional six months and one day to four years in jail, and charged P10,000 for having been found guilty of possession of paraphernalia for dangerous drugs.
 
Borce is the younger brother of Gloria B. Del Mundo who was convicted last January 12 by the same drug court. On August 19, 2009, during the implementation of a search warrant at their residence in No. 070 Purok 2, Lower Quirino Hill, Baguio City the siblings were found to have drug-related violations: seized were two sachets of shabu; eight chunks of marijuana hashish; numerous, assorted drug paraphernalia; and two live bullets for a caliber .45 pistol.

The siblings are members of a long existing and wide-ranging local drug group in the Cordillera Region, and both are in the Target List of Drug Personalities.
 
Reyes likewise ordered convicts Borce and Mapalao to be immediately transferred to the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila while convict Domingo will be moved to the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City.(with reports from PDEA CAR)