EDITORIAL - Why the Good Friday mood for a drug mule?

As every death diminishes us, so it is but natural for us to feel a sense of loss for that Filipino drug courier caught, tried, convicted, and executed by China. But let that sense of loss be clearly defined as something borne only out of being fellow human beings.

For no matter how much we may disagree on the method of punishment applied by China, the fact remains that our hapless compatriot was a drug mule, a calling that cannot be condoned but must be condemned.

Trafficking in drugs is so destructive to human life that we cannot allow the execution of a drug convict distract us from the real challenge we must face regarding the issue, which is not the death penalty but the effects of drugs on human lives and on society.

That is why top government officials, from President Aquino and Vice President Binay to Palace spokesmen and foreign affairs functionaries, should not have traipsed all over television with their long faces to express what amounted to official acts of commiseration and remorse.

As human beings, they could have expressed their sentiments in the personal capacities. Instead of announcing to the world that the government was shouldering all expenses related to the execution, they could just have done it quietly behind the scenes.

But by making it known to the whole world, the wrong signal is being sent that this government, this country, has a very soft and kind heart for people who, as shown by the example of China, should be treated very seriously, in a manner that discourages by striking fear.

Again, the execution can be debated thin, but the point is, the world needs to express its disapproval of drugs in the strongest terms. Woe to the country whose officials, for whatever reason, try to project a certain softness that does not drive home the message of disapproval.

To be fair, perhaps these officials were merely trying to play up to the media, which is the real culprit in hyping up the tragedy for no other reason than its sensational, and thus commercial, appeal.

If it may be recalled, during the last execution of three Filipino drug mules, even the inter-family tragedies were splashed all over television by certain stations, complete with music as if the whole episode of ruined lives was just another telenovela to them.