The Regional Trial Court Branch 30, the special drugs court in Dumaguete City , has reported a conviction rate of 60 percent for the year 2007, records showed yesterday.

The court presided over by Judge Rafael Crescencio Tan Jr. said yesterday it has convicted 29 drug dealers, nine of them sentenced to suffer life imprisonment, 17 were to serve 14 years jail term in the maximum, and the rest to serve less than one year and committed to the government rehabilitation center.

Tan said the court has only 211 pending cases, including those newly filed, as of December 31, 2007.

He added that 76 cases were tried in less than a year, 101, in less than two years, 30 cases in less than three years, and the rest were tried in the last four years.

Tan said the conviction rate was obtained by dividing the number of cases which resulted in convictions with the total number of cases disposed of during the period.

For last year, the court disposed 48 cases, resulting in 29 convictions or 60 percent conviction rate, he said.

On the whole, Tan said the special drugs court has an average disposal rate of eight cases per month for the second semester of 2007, or two cases disposed every week.

He said that this is based on the ideal ratio of 1:1 required by the Supreme Court, or for every case filed, there must be a corresponding case disposed.*RG

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