THIRD DIVISION
[G.R. No. 241784. July 31, 2019.]
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs.ARMIDA LEGARCE y PALAPUS AND ROGELIO LEGARCE y MANLIGAS, accused-appellants.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, Third Division, issued a Resolution datedJuly 31, 2019, which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 241784 (PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee v. ARMIDA LEGARCE y PALAPUS and ROGELIO LEGARCE y MANLIGAS, accused-appellants). — In accordance with its February 20, 2018 Resolution, 1 the Court of Appeals elevated to this Court the records of this case. 2 The Court of Appeals gave due course to the Notice of Appeal filed by accused-appellants Armida Legarce y Palapus and Rogelio Legarce y Manligas.
In its October 15, 2018 Resolution, 3 this Court noted the records of the case forwarded by the Court of Appeals and ordered the parties to file their supplemental briefs.
In its March 4, 2019 Resolution, 4 this Court noted the Manifestation filed by accused-appellants, stating that they would no longer file a supplemental brief. As for plaintiff-appellee People of the Philippines, no supplemental brief was filed by the Office of the Solicitor General.
After evaluating the records of this case, this Court resolves to affirm the assailed January 15, 2018 Decision 5 of the Court of Appeals, as accused-appellants failed to show any reversible error in it as to warrant the exercise of this Court's appellate jurisdiction.
WHEREFORE, the appeal is DISMISSED. The Court of Appeals' January 15, 2018 Decision in CA-G.R. CR HC No. 08948 is AFFIRMED. Accused-appellants Armida Legarce y Palapus and Rogelio Legarce y Manligas are found GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt of the illegal sale and illegal possession of dangerous drugs in violation of Sections 5 6 and 11, 7 respectively, of Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. For the illegal sale of dangerous drugs, accused-appellants are sentenced to suffer the penalty of life imprisonment and to each pay a fine of Five Hundred Thousand Pesos (P500,000.00). As for the illegal possession of dangerous drugs, they are sentenced to suffer the penalty of imprisonment of twelve (12) years and one (1) day, as minimum, to fourteen (14) years and eight (8) months, as maximum, and to each pay a fine of Three Hundred Thousand Pesos (P300,000.00) without the benefit of subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency.
Accused-appellants shall serve their sentences successively, and the period of their preventive imprisonment shall be credited in the service of their sentences.
SO ORDERED." (Reyes, A., Jr., J., on wellness leave.)
Very truly yours,
WILFREDO V. LAPITANDivision Clerk of Court
By:
(SGD.) MISAEL DOMINGO C. BATTUNG IIIDeputy Division Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1. CA rollo, p. 118.
2.Rollo, p. 1.
3.Id. at 24-25.
4.Id. at 32-33.
5.Id. at 2-17. The Decision was penned by Associate Justice Stephen C. Cruz, and concurred in by Associate Justices Remedios Salazar-Fernando and Carmelita Salandanan Manahan of the Second Division, Court of Appeals, Manila.
6. Republic Act No. 9165 (2002), sec. 5 provides:
SECTION 5. Sale, Trading, Administration, Dispensation, Delivery, Distribution and Transportation of Dangerous Drugs and/or Controlled Precursors and Essential Chemicals. — The penalty of life imprisonment to death and a fine ranging from Five hundred thousand pesos (P500,000.00) to Ten million pesos (P10,000,000.00) shall be imposed upon any person, who, unless authorized by law, shall sell, trade, administer, dispense, deliver, give away to another, distribute, dispatch in transit or transport any dangerous drug, including any and all species of opium poppy regardless of the quantity and purity involved, or shall act as a broker in any of such transactions.
7. Republic Act No. 9165 (2002), sec. 11 provides:
SECTION 11. Possession of Dangerous Drugs. — The penalty of life imprisonment to death and a fine ranging from Five hundred thousand pesos (P500,000.00) to Ten million pesos (P10,000,000.00) shall be imposed upon any person, who, unless authorized by law, shall possess any dangerous drug in the following quantities, regardless of the degree of purity thereof:
xxx xxx xxx
Otherwise, if the quantity involved is less than the foregoing quantities, the penalties shall be graduated as follows:
xxx xxx xxx
(3) Imprisonment of twelve (12) years and one (1) day to twenty (20) years and a fine ranging from Three hundred thousand pesos (P300,000.00) to Four hundred thousand pesos (P400,000.00), if the quantities of dangerous drugs are less than five (5) grams of opium, morphine, heroin, cocaine or cocaine hydrochloride, marijuana resin or marijuana resin oil, methamphetamine hydrochloride or "shabu," or other dangerous drugs such as, but not limited to, MDMA or "ecstasy," PMA, TMA, LSD, GHB, and those similarly designed or newly introduced drugs and their derivatives, without having any therapeutic value or if the quantity possessed is far beyond therapeutic requirements; or less than three hundred (300) grams of marijuana.