Thai woman gets life for smuggling 13.16 kg of cannabis via NAIA
Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 116 sentenced Thai national Sirirut Taweesup to life imprisonment on 26 October 2026 for smuggling 13.16 kg of cannabis worth P18.43 million through NAIA Terminal 3 in 2024. She was also fined P2 million and ordered to pay P5 million for the customs violation.
In a 14-page decision dated 26 October 2026, the Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 116 found Thai national Sirirut Taweesup guilty of importing illegal drugs and sentenced her to life imprisonment.[1][2][3]The court held that she smuggled 13.16 kg of cannabis worth P18.43 million, and it fined her P2 million.[1][3]It also convicted her of violating the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, imposing up to 12 more years in prison and ordering her to pay P5 million.[1][2][3][4]The court further ordered that she be deported after serving her sentences because she is a Thai national.[3]PDEA Director General Isagani Nerez said the conviction showed the agency’s resolve to hold drug smugglers accountable.[1]
The 2024 arrest
Taweesup, then 40, was arrested at NAIA Terminal 3 on 14 August 2024 after arriving from Bangkok when cannabis was found in her luggage.[1][5]An X-ray scan of the luggage bearing her name showed suspicious markings, a K-9 unit then flagged possible drugs, and laboratory testing confirmed the 13 pouches contained cannabis.[3]She brought 13 vacuum-sealed plastic pouches of dried cannabis leaves into the country when she arrived on 14 August 2024.[3][4]The arrest account said 14.8 kg of high-grade kush valued at P20.7 million was hidden in a false side of her check-in bag.[5]The convicted quantity in the 2026 decision was lower, at 13.16 kg worth P18.43 million, and the report uses the court’s figures.[1][5]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Politikopolitiko.com.phENNAIA drug bust: Thai passenger sentenced to life over P18M cannabis
Balita.orgbalita.orgSouth African, Thailand caught with P56.5 million drugs at NAIA
Open questions the AI reported
The 2024 arrest account gave 14.8 kg valued at P20.7 million, while the 2026 decision convicts on 13.16 kg worth P18.43 million; the report uses the court's figures.
The report follows Philstar's spelling Sirirut Taweesup; the 2024 account also renders the name in the opposite order.
The P5 million payment ordered under the customs conviction is recorded in the text; the figures field carries only the P2 million fine.
The DOJ announcement does not say whether the 5-million-peso customs fine is additional to the 2 million pesos imposed under the drugs law or replaces it, and it gives no date for the decision itself.
PDEA operatives arrested a 31-year-old man during a buy-bust operation in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, on 11 November 2026. Authorities seized 630 grams of suspected dried marijuana leaves valued at P75,600.
A court in La Trinidad, Benguet, sentenced Roldan Jacinto and Rocky Jet Bagoling to life imprisonment and fines of 500,000 pesos each on 24 September 2026 for selling 19,894.82 grams of dried marijuana seized in a buy-bust in March, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said.
Charged 2Cannabis 19.89 kgPrison life imprisonmentFine PHP 500,000
The Philippine Supreme Court ruled on 23 October 2003 that Japanese national Hedishi Suzuki stays convicted of possessing 1,547 grams of marijuana found in a biscuit box at Bacolod airport in 1994, but commuted his death sentence to reclusion perpetua and cut his fine from 10 million to one million pesos.
The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction of Baguio businessman Modesto Tee for possessing 591.81 kilograms of marijuana but reduced his death sentence to reclusion perpetua on 20 January 2003. The court sustained a one-million-peso fine and left standing his acquittal on a second charge over 336.93 kilograms excluded as an unreasonable search.
