335 Phil. 1087
VITUG, J.:
"WHEREFORE, the Court finds accused Ramon Abedes y Salgado, guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of violation of Sec. 4, Art. II, of Rep. Act No. 6425, as amended by P.D. 1675, otherwise known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972, and pursuant to Sec. 4 of said law, hereby sentences him to suffer the penalty of life imprisonment (30 years) and to pay a fine of P20,000.00, with subsidiary imprisonment, in case of insolvency, and to pay the costs.The judgment was affirmed by this Court[3] in its decision, dated 28 November 1986, which concluded:
"The 2 tea bags of dried marijuana leaves and 1 tea bag of marijuana cake are ordered confiscated and forfeited in favor of the government, to be disposed of (destroyed) according to the law.
"SO ORDERED."[2]
"WHEREFORE, this appeal is hereby DENIED. The trial court's decision is affirmed but the portion thereof which reads 30 years should be eliminated (People vs. Gonzales, 58 SCRA 266, 271)."[4]Invoking People vs. Simon[5] which had ruled that the reduced penalties prescribed under the provisions of the Dangerous Drugs Act, as amended by R.A. No. 7659, could be retroactively applied, Ramon Abedes filed the instant "Urgent Motion to Modify Decision." Conformably with the second paragraph of Section 20, Article IV of R.A. No. 6425, as amended by Section 17 of R.A. No. 7659 and as construed and applied in the aforesaid case of People vs. Simon, the newly prescribed penalty for his offense would only be prision correccional. Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the range of indeterminate penalty on Ramon Abedes, modified accordingly, should thereby be from six (6) months of arresto mayor as minimum to six (6) years of prision correccional as maximum.