HK NEWS CALLED AQUINO NAÏVE, TENTATIVE PRESIDENT / 79 PINOYS ON DEATH ROW
MANILA, FEBRUARY 21, 2011 (TRIBUNE) President Aquino is again getting noticed for his
ack of resolve in confronting issues facing his administration this time on his uncertain approach on the case of the three Filipinos up for execution in China as a result of drug offenses.
In an analysis titled "The Philippines' Tentative President," Hong Kong-based online publication Asia Sentinel called Aquino naive who surrendered Philippine democratic principles without getting anything in return in reference to his decision for a snub of the Nobel Prize award ceremony which included a peace award to a Chinese dissident.
"It had already been made clear by the government in Manila that its absence from the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Norway was due to its concern to gain favor with China and convince it to commute the death sentences. That just might have been a worthwhile trade off
if there had actually been a trade. But a naïve Aquino surrendered Philippine democratic principles without getting anything in return. Its boycott of the Oslo ceremony was a fruitless gesture," according to Asia Sentinel.
The publication said Aquino is a nice guy with a soft heart but on the same breath asked the question "Is that really the leader a nation long lagging its regional peers needs?"
It said Aquino's preference for putting the politics of the heart before considered views of the national interest has been classically illustrated by official intervention to try to save the lives of three Filipinos facing the death penalty after being convicted of drug smuggling in China.
"Noynoy's instinct for soft-centered compromise is being demonstrated in other ways which suggest he does not have the capacity to push for the radical and controversial changes the nation needs if it is to lift its game," it said.
It also cited the deportation to China rather than Taiwan of alleged Taiwanese smugglers which was widely interpreted as yet another kowtow to Beijing also related to the death sentences case.
"This was taking the logic of One-China policy to an extreme which can only discourage Taiwanese from interacting with the Philippines. Taiwan is a major employer of Philippine workers and potential source of manufacturing investment than mainland China," it added.
It added the concern for life would also be rather more convincing if the Philippines had a better record of protecting the lives of visiting foreigners or showed more determination to resolve the many outstanding cases of murders of local journalists.
"Indeed, given the level of murders and general state of security in many parts of the country it will come as particular surprise to Chinese to see how far the leaders will go to save the lives of drug smugglers. Are they sincere? Or is this just another act in the never enduing soap opera of Philippine politics?," it said.
"Noynoy may not be entirely to blame for the nation's groveling foreign policy. Much rests with another "nice guy," Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, son of the late Carlos P. Romulo, a UN founder and long-serving foreign minister in the post 1945 era. The younger Romulo, now 77, is popular enough on the Asean golf, karaoke and photo-op circuit but despite years in the job has yet to leave a mark. He is likely soon to move on at last but Noynoy's instinct will likely be to find a Romulo clone," it said.
The analysis piece also cited the Reproductive Health bill as another show of unprincipled compromise in Aquino.
"While still putatively supporting the Reproductive Health legislation, Noynoy has declined to give it priority and has proposed his own bill that stresses poverty reduction over family planning. Given that the bill's chances of passage – 13 years after originally proposed – are poor in the first place, at the least this will delay help for the poor who want access to contraception and related services and at worst delay the matter to give the Catholic Church the time to twist the arms of enough congressmen to defeat it yet again," it said.
After months he has yet to show that he has the will to use his popularity and the size of his mandate to make tough decisions.
Indeed, the current episode suggests he is more determined to keep his "nice guy" image than take tough decisions, it added.
An Agence France Presse report, meanwhile, said that Filipino expatriates are turning to willing drug smugglers due to the lack of government action to provide jobs at home.
"Maid in the Philippines" was how its top export commodity used to be known, with millions of women from the impoverished country hired abroad as domestic workers.
But as menial jobs vanish in the global recession and opportunities fail to materialise at home, more and more desperate Philippine women are resorting to something far more dangerous — smuggling drugs as mules.
Three convicted Philippine drug smugglers, including two women, Friday saw their executions in China postponed after Vice-President Jejomar Binay made a frantic dash to Beijing to plead for their lives.
More than 500 Filipinos — men and women — are currently languishing in foreign jails on drug-related cases, foreign ministry spokesman Ed Malaya said. Women are especially susceptible.
"There appears to be a specific targeting of our Filipina women by international drug syndicates to be used as drug mules," Malaya told a news conference.
"This luring, particularly of women, started some time in 2007," he said. "Since then, we have seen a dramatic increase in the numbers."
He added: "We are concerned about it and China, as a destination of these drugs, is equally concerned."
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) data shows 227 Filipinos jailed for drug-related offences in China alone. A Filipina was this month given 18 years in prison in Indonesia for drug trafficking, while there have been other cases in Asia and the Middle East.
Enrico Fos, a special assistant to the foreign ministry's overseas workers affairs, said international drug gangs specifically targeted Philippine women aged between 20 and 40.
"One route is for them to pick up the drugs in a third country and smuggle them into China. The other route is, the syndicate comes into the Philippines and recruits Filipinas who take the drugs to China or elsewhere," Fos said.
The women are paid between 500 and 5,000 dollars to swallow tubes containing the drugs, carry them hidden in their luggage or even dissolved and soaked into paper or books.
The lack of jobs at home is a major reason why women in particular resort to smuggling drugs.
One in four Filipinos lives on a dollar a day or less and a tenth of the population works abroad, from where, according to central bank data, they send home more than 18 billion dollars to their families.
Women comprise at least 60 percent of the country's eight-million-plus overseas work force, with many employed as maids — even if the number of jobs in that sector has been shrinking.
The condemned drug mules in foreign jails are "victims of poverty", said labour rights campaigner Garry Martinez, head of labour rights monitor Migrante.
He cited the case of a domestic worker who swallowed a tube of cocaine and tried to smuggle it into a Manila airport, where she was arrested on Friday.
"She had been working in Pakistan but her husband died. She was desperate to come home but nobody would help her until someone offered to pay her to swallow the drugs," Martinez said.
"She was forced to grasp the business end of the knife," he said, using a local expression that equates to "biting the bullet".
Migrante data shows there are 128 Filipinos on death row abroad, including 85 drug-related cases. China makes up the bulk of those and there are others in the Middle East, Malaysia and Thailand. Six Filipinos have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia for various offences since 2005, it added.
Malacañang, meanwhile, said prayer vigils will continue for the three Filipino death convicts in China.
Various religious organizations have expressed elation over the decision of the Chinese Supreme Court to defer the scheduled executions by lethal injection of three Filipinos convicted for drug trafficking on Monday and Tuesday, saying the development is a result of prayers and mounting appeals to save them from the death row, according to the Palace.
Monsignor Pedro Quitorio III, media director of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines said the Catholic Church is happy over the diplomatic triumph and thanked the Chinese government for postponing the execution of Ramon Credo, 42, Sally Villanueva, 32, and Elizabeth Batain, 38.
Carmen Buencamino, head of the Awit ng Bayan ni Maria interfaith spiritual community has also said Catholic Church laity organizations join the mounting appeals for the Chinese government to commute the capital punishment meted the three Filipinos.
"We hope and pray that our pleas be heeded by our Chinese brethren. We also urge our people to continue praying for our countrymen," Buencamino said.
Efren Rafanan of the National Spiritual Council of the Philippines said as a peace loving and pro-life nation, Filipinos are asking for divine intervention so that the Chinese government would downgrade from death to life imprisonment the punishment of the three Filipinos.
"We do not condone drug trafficking but what we are appealing that the lives of the victims be saved as it is the heads of these drug rings that deserve to be caught and punished if we really want to put an end to drug trafficking," Rafanan said in a statement.
On the other hand, Imam Council of the Philippines chairman Aleem Said Ahman Bashen said they are supporting President Aquino's call for national unity in praying to save the lives of Batain, Credo, and Villanueva.
"We are praying for reprieve or leniency, we are not asking that they be pardoned. What we are asking is for a clemency or their punishment to be downgraded from death to life imprisonment," Bashen said. With a report from AFP
79 Pinoys on China death row By Michael Punongbayan (The Philippine Star) Updated February 21, 2011 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Apart from the three whose execution has been deferred, there are 79 other Filipinos awaiting their fate on China's death row, an overseas workers group said yesterday.
Migrante International said more than 120 other Filipino workers are also facing death sentences in other countries.
The group lauded the efforts of President Aquino in successfully halting the execution of the three Filipino workers in China.
However, the government should not give its "best shot" at the last minute in saving the lives of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on death row because "this is not a game," Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said.
"The Aquino government should waste no time to start, as early as this time, appealing to the Chinese government the commutation of the other 79 OFWs on death row, and also the more than 120 others in other countries," the group said.
Monterona said Migrante is presently handling the cases of eight Filipinos on death row and 121 others in jail in the Middle East. He said 13 of the Filipino workers jailed face drug-related offenses.
Since 2005, six Filipinos whose cases Migrante has handled have been executed, mostly in Saudi Arabia.
Monterona said every case of OFWs on death row must be treated with urgency by the Philippine government.
"The case of the three OFWs, who were supposed to be executed on Monday and Tuesday, is a bitter reality to confront; efforts to save OFWs whose cases are punishable by death should start from the time a proper case has been filed and hiring the best legal defense team the government can provide," Monterona said, noting that most were victims of international drug syndicates.
Monterona suggested the launching of a national campaign involving all concerned government agencies to inform the public of the dangers of being victimized by international drug traffickers and syndicates.
"The foreign affairs department and various Philippine posts abroad must be ready to do their share in the campaign against drug trafficking and syndicates by swapping information and forging
cooperation with the host government to combat this drug menace victimizing our dear OFWs," Monterona said.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada also suggested going after the principal players of the international drug cartel.
Estrada blamed illegal recruiters behind the plight of unsuspecting Filipino workers, mostly women, who are enticed to become "drug mules" or couriers of international drug syndicates.
The women are paid between $500 and $5,000 to swallow tubes containing the drugs, carry them hidden in their luggage or even dissolved and soaked into paper or books.
The lack of jobs at home is a major reason why women in particular resort to smuggling drugs.
Estrada said authorities must focus their attention on the personalities involved in enticing Filipino workers to transport illegal drugs.
Estrada noted most of the suspected drug mules are not even OFWs registered at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
Alarming trend
Other lawmakers had sounded the alarm on drug mules in 2009.
Senators Pia Cayetano, Manuel Villar and Loren Legarda said there had been an increasing trend of using Filipino overseas workers and tourists as drug mules.
Villar recalled the case of Nilfa Dumalagan who was recruited by a Nigerian married to a Filipino woman to get a package from Peru.
Villar said Dumalagan had a tourist visa to Malaysia when she met the "recruiters" but she was able to escape the syndicate before embarking on her first stint as a drug mule.
According to Villar, the Nigerian drug cartels are one of the biggest and most notorious in global drug operations.
Villar had filed Senate Resolution 1192 citing that in 2008, 111 Filipinos were arrested for drug-related offenses in China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Villar said the Philippines ranks fifth in methamphetamine confiscation from 1998 to 2007, based from the United Nations' office on Drug and Crime 2009 World Drug Report.
Villar noted a majority of the arrests had stemmed from drugs stashed in luggage supposedly given to them by recruiters they met in a transit country, usually Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, Laos or Vietnam.
The members of foreign drug rings give Filipino mules tickets and pocket money to travel to Hong Kong or to China with a promise to pay the carriers upon delivery of the drugs to their destination.
The Blas Ople Center also said there are now more than 500 drug cases involving Filipinos in different parts of the world, mostly in China.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said there was almost six hundred percent increase from the 16 people arrested in 2007 for drug related offenses.
Of those arrested in 2007 and 2008, a total of 22 are facing death sentence, 12 have gotten life terms while 11 have been made to serve 15 to 16 years prison terms.
Sen. Vicente Sotto III, who served as chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board, said there are about 200 cases involving Filipinos facing drug related cases in China.
Sotto also revealed a Nigerian drug syndicate operating with drug mules in China usually targets desperate Filipino workers with a promise of money and extension of their visa.
"That's why it's very inviting. They can renew their visa and it's given to them for free. And they even have money on the side," Sotto said.
Senator Cayetano revealed there are about 630 Filipinos detained in prisons abroad facing drug trafficking cases. China had the biggest number of detainees at 250, 75 of whom are already in death row.
Cayetano filed Resolution 282 in noting that 62 percent or six out of every ten Filipinos are detained abroad for drug trafficking.
On the other hand, the London-based Amnesty International (AI) revealed China had been relentless in carrying out executions of suspected drug traffickers.
The AI in its 2008 statistics disclosed that China posted over 1,700 executions carried out followed by Iran with only more than 340.
The AI slammed China for not being transparent as to the figures of executions it conducts every year. The organization based its statistics on publicized cases of Chinese executions.
The AI believes China has conducted many unreported executions.
The AI reported that in the 1990s, executions in China increased to 10,000 as its annual average.
In 1996, after an aggressive anti-crime campaign was carried out in China, there were 4,367, or roughly 12 people a day being executed, the AI said.
A report from the Associated Press also revealed that Chinese authorities also extend its firm stance on executions of foreigners in its jurisdiction.
AP recounts that in 2009, China has demonstrated its firm imposition of its verdict against 53-year-old Akhmal Shaik, a British national.
Shaik was charged for carrying four kilos of heroin to China and was condemned to death after a trial that lasted less than an hour.
Despite exhausting all legal remedies including his admission of mental instability, Shaik was executed in the same year that strained the relations between Britain and China.
The recent sojourn of Vice President Jejomar Binay however led to the stay of execution of the three Filipino workers who were supposed to be executed today and tomorrow.
The Philippines, in a joint statement with China said, "it fully respects China's law and the verdict of the SPC (Supreme People's Court)."
"The Philippines and China are determined to work together in the fight against transnational crimes. Including drug trafficking," the statement continued, thus leaving uncertain the fate of the three condemned Filipinos. –With Christina Mendez, Mayen Jaymalin and Raymund Catindig
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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