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.