Ronald Singson home after HK jail stint

VIGAN CITY—Former Ilocos Sur Rep. Ronald Singson arrived on the family-owned 18-seat jet at the airport here at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, hours after his release from the Hong Kong jail where he served 11 months of an 18-month sentence for drug trafficking.

Accompanied by his father, Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson, and brother Randolf, Singson was immediately whisked away to the family’s Baluarte compound for a thanksgiving Mass and dinner.

Looking trim and clad in a thick coat, Singson was welcomed at the airport by his mother, Evelyn, and his siblings and other relatives.

Mayors of the province’s first district, which he served until his arrest last year, also welcomed him.

Singson was arrested at Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok International Airport on July 11, 2010, after 6.67 grams of cocaine and two tablets of Valium were found in his possession.

He pleaded guilty, but his lawyer had argued in court that the drugs were for his personal use and were not intended to be sold.

Singson was sentenced on Feb. 24 last year to one year and six months imprisonment by a Hong Kong Court judge.

When he was arrested in Hong Kong in 2010, Singson had just won his second term as Ilocos Sur representative.

He did not make any statement upon arrival at the airport.

But at the welcome dinner at the Baluarte, Singson said he would spend “more time with my family, particularly, my four-year-old daughter, Samantha.”

His aunt, Mayor Germelina Goulart of Caoayan town, said her nephew “had time to contemplate on life” while in prison.

Singson was replaced as congressman by his younger brother, Ryan Luis, who had said that his brother was released early “probably for good behavior.”