Opium at the Port of Cebu in 1929

This is the conclusion of our feature on the smuggling of opium at the Port of Cebu that happened in 1929:

At the appointed hour, Uy Se Tieng and one Uy Ay arrived at Chief of Secret Service Samson's house. Captain Buenconsejo, who had been hiding, appeared and arrested the two Chinese then took them to the Constabulary Headquarters and notified the fiscal. Captain Buenconsejo and Samson then went to the house of Lua Chu to search it and arrest him. In the pocket of Lua's coat hanging on a wall they found five letters written in Chinese characters relating to the opium. There they also found 3,252 opium tins hidden away. The value of the opium seized was estimated at P50,000.

In the afternoon of December 18, 1929, Captain Buenconsejo approached Lua Chu and asked him to tell the truth as to who was the owner of the opium. Lua Chu answered as follows: "Captain, it is useless to ask me any question, for I am not going to answer to them. The only thing I will say is that whoever the owner of this contraband may be, he is not such a fool as to bring it in here without the knowledge of those" he pointed towards the customhouse.

During the trial, the lawyers of Uy Se Tieng argued that Samson induced the former to order the opium from Hong Kong and obtained a loan of P200. Lua Chu and Uy Se Tieng (who were convicted by the Court of First Instance of Cebu for illegal importation of opium and sentenced for four years imprisonment each and fined P10,000) were represented by the famous lawyers of Cebu, Gibbs, McDonough, Paulino Gullas, Hipolito Alo, and Manuel C. Briones.

Customs officials Natividad and Samson were dismissed from the service and this was used by the defense to question the integrity of Samson who testified in favor of the government.

The two Chinese appealed their conviction to the Supreme Court who affirmed their conviction. The defense of instigation raised by the Chinese was answered by the Court that there was no instigation and what happened was an entrapment. The Supreme Court said on September 7, 1931 on the opium case of Lua and Uy: "There is certainly nothing immoral in this or against the public good, which should prevent the Government from prosecuting and punishing the culprits, for this is not a case where an innocent person is induced to commit a crime merely to prosecute him, but it simply a trap set to catch a criminal".