Bleeding hearts

The latest execution in China of a convicted drug mule who happened to be a Filipina is another case that should compel our government authorities here to clamp down on international drug trafficking syndicates. Her execution is the fifth drug-related case involving Filipino nationals who wittingly acted as drug mules to transport such contraband to China, and perhaps elsewhere in the world.

The STAR first broke the news last week about the decision of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China that upheld a lower court decision sentencing the Filipina drug mule to death. She and her co-accused, a male cousin, were arrested near Shanghai in January 2011 for carrying over 12 kilos of high-grade heroin stashed in their luggage.

The Filipina, who was detained at the Hangzhou detention center prior to her execution, had been doing this for 16 times since 2008, going back and forth from Dubai, Hong Kong and China. She entered China as a tourist. In 2007, she was allegedly offered $1,000 to act as drug mule and later was offered $3,000 to $4,000 per trip.

A letter of President Aquino was sent to Chinese President Xi Jinping to appeal the death sentence against the Filipina after she was found guilty of smuggling 6.198 kilos of heroin in China. Her family asked for privacy to keep her identity under wraps given the gravity of her crime.

China first carried out on March 30, 2011 the death sentence on three Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking. Ramon Credo, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva and Elizabeth Batain were executed by lethal injection. Under the Chinese criminal code, the introduction into China of 50 grams of heroin or any narcotic drug is punishable by death.

Armed with letter-appeals from President Aquino to his counterpart Hu Jintao who was the President of China then, Vice President Jejomar Binay flew all the way to Beijing to try to save the three OFWs from execution. Best efforts failed to save them. In this latest case, Beijing could not accommodate on short notice the Vice President to personally deliver the letter-appeal for the Filipina.

Prior to this, the most recent execution in China was that of a 35-year-old Filipino sentenced on Dec. 8, 2011. Despite also appeals from President Aquino for a commutation of sentence to life imprisonment, execution by lethal injection was carried out. He was convicted for smuggling 1.495 kilos of heroin to Guangxi. He was arrested in September 2008 upon arrival at the Guilin International Airport from Malaysia.

Drug mules are so bold to ply their nefarious trade despite the most modern and sophisticated equipment to detect narcotics and other dangerous drugs and substances, not to mention drug-sniffing dogs deployed in airports.

Only last June 10, a male national from the Republic of Benin was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after he was found to be carrying at least 60 capsules of shabu which he ingested to avoid detection. While he may have avoided detection, his name, however, was in the watch list of the International Police.

This latest case proving the involvement of these Filipino drug mules established that these international drug trafficking syndicates have strong connections here in the Philippines as transshipment point. These foreign crime syndicates obviously conduct their illegal drugs trade with impunity and complete disregard of our country’s laws against dangerous drugs.

The sad part of this latest episode has unduly placed our generally law-abiding countrymen in a bad light whenever they travel abroad. Looking at the routes taken by these Filipino drug mules arrested in China has a disturbing pattern that should alert the entire international community.

Vice President Binay hit the right note when he pressed both the National Bureau for Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to hunt down these drug syndicates involved in recruiting Filipinos to become their couriers. These criminals with foreign links are apparently operating here for a long time already. They prey upon desperate Filipinos out to make big money but risking their very lives to do it. 

Binay specifically referred to the case of Ordinario-Villanueva (no relation of mine). The local recruiter here Mapet Cortez, alias Tita Cacayan, allegedly misled Ordinario-Villanueva into taking what she thought was an empty suitcase that turned out to be lined with more than four kilos of heroin.

As the Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFWs) Concerns, Binay has on his shoulders this task to save the lives of these Filipinos committing crimes abroad, including those who have opted the get-rich-quick scheme of drug trafficking.

But these Filipino drug mules are no OFWs. The nearest thing these mules can be like some of our undocumented OFWs is that they were travelling with valid tourist visas.

Doing his job as Presidential adviser on OFWs concerns, Binay had quite a lucky streak in trying to help distressed Filipinos abroad. Binay saved from execution so far several OFWs who were convicted of murder in Saudi Arabia and in other Middle East countries, with the Philippine government paying blood money.

Since they are legitimate OFWs, their contributions to the Overseas Workers Welfare Fund helped pay for the legal assistance and other expenditures related to saving their lives. But these Filipino drug mules are of different breed. They very well know that they deal with something illegal not only in the Philippines but also in the country where they will transport the contraband. They took the risk so that means they were ready to face the consequence if caught.

As of this June, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported a total of 213 drug-related cases involving Filipino nationals in China. Twenty-eight of these cases resulted in death penalty convictions but granted two-year reprieve while their appeals are heard for downgrading of penalty to life imprisonment. The 28 cases include the Filipino male companion of the Filipina who was executed last Wednesday.

Government authorities renewed the warning to all Filipinos – including OFWs – it is not worth taking the risk to traffic drugs into foreign countries such as China. So expect no bleeding hearts for these drug mules.