MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Embassy in China has expressed serious concern over the increasing number of Filipino “drug mules” carrying illegal drugs into China despite repeated warnings by the Philippine government.
Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Cataumber Brady told members of the Filipino community during their recent Christmas party in Beijing that Chinese syndicates continued to entice Filipinos with promises of money to smuggle dangerous and prohibited drugs into China.
“Despite repeated warnings by the Philippine government, our kababayan (countrymen) continue to be victimized by the syndicates with wide network operations in various parts of Asia,” Brady said.
In a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs last week, Brady said that since 2007, 48 Filipinos have been meted out the death penalty while 26 others received life sentences for carrying illegal drugs into China.
Currently, 183 Filipinos, mostly women, are languishing in jails throughout China on drug trafficking charges, according to Brady.
Brady urged Filipinos to resist any offers of financial rewards from drug gangs to carry prohibited drugs into China or any other country in the world.
Of those arrested in 2009, seven were meted out the death penalty, seven were given life sentences, while five received sentences of at least 15 years’ imprisonment.
In 2008, 111 Filipinos, most of them women, were arrested for drug-related offenses in China, Hong Kong and Macau, a 594-percent increase over the 16 Filipinos arrested in 2007.
Brady reminded Filipino travelers that China has been strictly imposing tough penalties on persons caught in possession of prohibited or dangerous drugs.
“In China, drug trafficking of 50 grams or more of highly dangerous drugs like heroin may be punishable by 15 years in prison, life imprisonment or death,” Brady said.
She said that all those arrested were caught with illegal drugs on their person or luggage, allegedly given to them by “friends” they met in transit or in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, Laos and Vietnam.
They said they were given air tickets and pocket money to travel to Hong Kong, Macau or China, with the promise that they would be paid $500 more upon delivery of the drugs to a contact at their destination.
Recently, some of those arrested for possession of illegal drugs had come directly from Manila. - Cynthia Balana, Jerome Aning, Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 20, 2009
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