Operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation and the police narcotics command raided premises leased by Modesto Tee and his Baguio residence around 1 July 1998, seizing a total of 928.74 kilograms of dried marijuana packed in boxes, sacks and bricks.[1][2] Tee, a Chinese national in his forties and a Baguio businessman, was charged with illegal possession of the drug.[1][2]
The Baguio regional trial court convicted him in September 1999 for 591.81 kilograms found in 26 boxes and a yellow sack and imposed the death penalty with a one-million-peso fine.[1][2] In the same judgment it acquitted him on a second charge covering 336.93 kilograms in 13 sacks, ruling that batch the product of an unreasonable search and ordering it destroyed as contraband.[1][2]
Death sentence reduced
On automatic review on 20 January 2003, the Supreme Court affirmed the conviction but held that, with no aggravating or mitigating circumstance, the offence merited only reclusion perpetua rather than death.[1][2] It sustained the one-million-peso fine as within the limits the law allows.[1][2]
