EDITORIAL - Respect for the law

Once again, the Philippine government is pleading with China to spare a Filipina from execution for drug trafficking. If Beijing behaves as it has in the past, however, it will let Chinese justice take its course, with a delay in the execution the best that can be achieved for the convict.

The Filipina, 33, reportedly transported prohibited drugs 16 times since 2008 to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland from Dubai. On Jan. 25, 2011, she was apprehended in Huangzhou with over 6.1 kilos of heroin together with her male cousin, who had another seven kilos of the prohibited drug in his possession. That’s a lot of weight to carry around, and no one will believe that the cousins did not know the heroin packages were in their luggage.

Beijing has been consistent in its response to previous pleas from foreign governments to spare drug traffickers: they apply their laws equally to Chinese and foreigners alike, and they can’t make exemptions over foreign policy considerations. The two matters are apples and oranges, Chinese authorities have pointed out, as they urged foreigners to respect the law when in China.

It’s an advice that Filipinos must learn to heed, and not just in China. Everything may be negotiable in the Philippines, but this is not the situation in several other countries. In some places, certain types of punishment may be deemed barbaric by democratic societies. But Filipinos who intend to visit such countries should be fully aware of their laws and what’s in store for lawbreakers.

Some Filipinos are driven to commit crimes overseas in self-defense or in the wake of severe oppression. Philippine taxpayers spend an average of P50 million to save each convicted Filipino from execution in the Middle East. But there are Filipinos who willfully commit crimes, breaking another country’s laws for personal profit. This is often the case with drug mules, especially the repeat offenders. The greater the risk, it seems, the higher the profits.

There’s not much that the Philippine government can do to discourage Filipinos from breaking laws overseas, except to improve the information campaign about the wages of drug trafficking in many countries particularly China. Filipinos must be sufficiently reminded that if they break the law, they must pay for it. Unlike in the Philippines where impunity reigns, they mean business in many other countries.