Lethal lessons

Looking at the grieving relatives of the three Filipinos executed in China, my thoughts turn to the grieving relatives of three young men I befriended during my student days.

All three died, several years apart, of drug overdose. One was a teenager when he died; another was in his mid-20s and the third in his early 30s. If they killed themselves, their relatives didn’t tell us. One of them was seated at a table, staring blankly into space, I was told, and simply keeled over.

Years later, someone closer to me was also found dead from an overdose of drugs. He was an only son and his mother was hysterical.

Those young men tried to kick their drug habit, but like alcoholism and nicotine dependence, this is no easy task. In the case of addiction to “hard” drugs such as heroin and morphine, withdrawal often involves physical pain. Drug rehab is costly and addicts can pick up the habit again upon their release.

As a reporter, I came across so many violent crimes, particularly rape with homicide, committed by individuals high on drugs. It amazed me how even the very poor could develop a drug habit and would blow their entire week’s meager earnings on a packet of shabu. That eight-year-old girl who was gang-raped, tortured and then left to die in Manila several years ago was the victim of young men high on drugs.

A number of Filipino women trafficked for sex overseas are also forced to develop an addiction to hard drugs to keep them dependent on their handlers.

The menace posed to society by prohibited drugs should be included in seminars that prospective overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are required to attend prior to their departure.

Such stories should give them second thoughts when someone approaches them with an offer of big money in exchange for serving as drug mules.

Even when these mules do not end up in a lethal injection chamber or before a firing squad, simply landing behind bars in a foreign land for drug offenses must be traumatic enough, especially for women.

OFWs must be strongly warned that transporting heroin across international borders is not like transporting used clothing for ukay-ukay. Drugs kill; drugs ruin lives.

And by now all Filipinos probably no longer need to be warned that in countries such as China, drug traffickers are executed.

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In the sad fate that befell Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Elizabeth Batain and Ramon Credo, some questions beg to be answered.

One is where the heroin came from. Did Philippine authorities try to find out? Shabu is manufactured in many laboratories in the Philippines; is heroin also being processed here? If so, where does the raw material come from, and how is it brought in? Heroin is synthesized from morphine, a natural substance extracted from the seedpod of the Asian opium poppy, which is not grown here.

The three convicts brought to China about four kilos each of heroin. That’s a lot of drugs; the street value has to be in the millions, and courier pay, especially when the destination is as high-risk as China, must have been too enormous to pass up.

Aside from finding out how heroin enters the country, authorities must also determine how the drugs get out. Unless dogs trained to sniff out narcotics are sniffing for hamburger instead, I don’t think they can miss the odor of four kilos of heroin, no matter how supposedly well concealed, in checked-in luggage at the airport.

Authorities should explore the possibility that someone at the airport “escorted” the drug mules’ luggage with the precious contraband past the canines and whatever security checks there are for narcotics. If drug rings can pay for the services of drug mules, surely they can also pay off airport personnel.

Incidentally, how does one carry 4.5 kilos of anything in a supposedly empty suitcase and not smell something fishy? Try lugging around a 2.5-kilo pack of sugar. The Chinese can’t be fooled by that story.

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And speaking of the Chinese, the tragedy of the three convicts should teach President Aquino a lesson in diplomacy with Beijing.

He invested too much in the effort to save the three convicts, and he was rebuffed. Asia’s champion of human rights aligned itself with the likes of Myanmar at the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremonies in Oslo, bending over backwards to please Beijing. We don’t know if this was really to save the three Pinoys, or to mend fences with Beijing after the hostage fiasco in Rizal Park last year.

In subsequent dealings with Beijing after this tragedy, P-Noy should not compromise the values held dear in the Philippines, using these as bargaining chips in what Chinese officials described as a case of apples and oranges: Chinese justice, they said in so many words, is not administered with diplomacy in mind.

For his efforts, and those of Vice President Jejomar Binay, P-Noy is still being pilloried by critics. I don’t know what else he could have given Beijing to save the necks of three drug traffickers: Kalayaan Island in the Spratlys, or full Chinese fishing rights in the Sulu Sea?

It would be better if Pinoys helped themselves right from the start by respecting the law, by being responsible citizens of the Philippines and the world. We understand the desperation of the poor, but poverty is not a license to commit crime, especially one as serious as drug trafficking.

Killing for self-defense, as in the case of rape victim Sarah Balabagan, is understandable. But serving as a tool for destroying lives through drugs is a different story.

The long-term goal of the administration should be the creation of an environment that will bring enough job-generating investments to end the Philippine diaspora.

The tragic stories of Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Elizabeth Batain and Ramon Credo illustrate the downside of a phenomenon that has kept the Philippine economy afloat even during global financial upheavals.

OFW remittances have reinforced dysfunctional systems in our country, giving politicians and policy makers little incentive to change the status quo. When we are unhappy with life in this country, we don’t push for reforms; we just pack our bags and leave.

The dysfunction has driven investors away, and with them the much-needed jobs that offer decent pay.

Without those jobs, many Filipinos are vulnerable to the lure of big bucks earned quickly, even if it’s for a high-risk enterprise such as drug trafficking.

It’s now up to President Aquino and concerned sectors to create that job-generating environment. We must bring home our workers. And not in sealed boxes.