Police officers sentenced to death

Police officers sentenced to death

MANILA (AP): A suburban district police chief and nine other
officers were sentenced to death on Thursday for accepting a
total of 650,000 pesos (US$13,265) in bribes from alleged Chinese
drug dealers.

Supt. Francisco Ovilla and his nine subordinates were charged
with accepting bribes. The punishment for law enforcers accepting
bribes is equivalent to the penalty for the original offense
committed by the bribers. In this case the bribers offered the
money to cover alleged drug trafficking, a crime punished by
lethal injection.

Judge Diosdado Peralta of the regional trial court in suburban
Quezon City also sentenced the officers to six to 12 years in
prison for violating the antigraft law. One officer was
acquitted.

Two of Ovilla's subordinates -- Reynato Resurreccion and
Wilfredo Gonzales -- testified that the officers took the bribe
after arresting two Chinese men who sold 1.5 kilograms of
methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu, to an
undercover officer on Aug. 22, 1999.

The two alleged drug dealers were freed and have not been
arrested since.