A TOLEDO City court convicted eight people for transporting and selling butane canisters filled with liquified petroleum gas (LPG) last Friday, June 29.
Judge Albie Carmelo Pescadero of the Municipal Trial Courts in Cities (MTCC) in Toledo City sentenced Mary Ann Ortega, Lucila Gamboa, Jane Paula Sombelon, Arvin Enriquez, Christian Jay Jimenez and Jhon Clen Estrimos to three to four years in jail for selling, distributing and transporting LPG-filled butane canisters.
The court also penalized Richard Diotay and Farlemar Baol with a P25,000 fine each and subsidiary imprisonment for transporting the canisters.
All eight respondents pled guilty to the charges filed against them in their arraignment last Friday.
Ortega, Gamboa and Sombelon yielded 290 filled butane canisters and 140 empty canisters in their respective stalls outside the Toledo City public market last May 27.
The 24-year-old Estrimos was caught by police as he waited for the delivery vehicle that would carry 215 empty canisters and 15 LPG filled canisters in Barangay Das in Toledo City last June 3.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of the mini van used by Enriquez and Jimenez in transporting 200 filled and 600 empty butane canisters.
Diotay and Baol yielded 240 filled and 360 empty butane canisters when they were caught by police delivering the goods in Barangay Matab-ang in Toledo City.
Their delivery jeep, however, will not be forfeited since it is registered to a resident of Argao, Cebu.
Cebu province has an ordinance passed in 2015 which bans the sale, distribution and transportation of LPG-filled butane canisters.