The Quezon City Regional Trial Court has meted out life imprisonment on former Ozamis City Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog for illegal possession of 677 grams of shabu seized from her house in a raid on July 30, 2017.
In a 161-page decision, RTC Judge Mitushealla Manzanero-Casiño also ordered Parojinog to pay a fine of P500,000 to P10 million.
The court junked Parojinog’s claim that the raiders framed her up and planted the seized illegal drugs inside her house.
“The Court emphasizes that the accused, her son Edray and his friends all testified that they saw the policemen entering the main glass door of the house and going upstairs. However, there was nothing in their testimony and not one of them actually testified that they saw the policemen who entered the main glass door as carrying something suspicious,” the decision read.
The raid left Parojinog’s father, then Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., his wife, and 14 others dead.
The vice mayor’s brother, Reynaldo Parojinog Jr., was also arrested during the raid.
Parojinog earlier sought the dismissal of the case against her, claiming that the service of the search warrant on them was illegal.
Her lawyer asserted that the supposedly seized drugs were mishandled, breaking the chain of custody and compromising its integrity as evidence.
But the Quezon City court maintained that the prosecutors were able to establish the chain of custody of the seized drugs from the time of seizure up to the time of their presentation in court.
“The illegal drugs in the said case were even found inside the bedroom of persons other than the accused (Parojinog) but (even) inside the rest house owned by the accused,” the court noted.
“There is no doubt in the mind of the Court that the prosecution has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of illegal possession of 677.6796 grams of shabu,” the decision stated.
The judge directed the transfer of Parojinog from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology’s detention facility at Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City to the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Then President Rodrigo Duterte has also accused the Parojinog clan of involvement in illegal drugs.