Worsening problem

THE CASES of the three overseas Filipino workers who are scheduled to be executed for drug smuggling in China on Wednesday are just the tip of a big problem that the Philippine government is facing today. There are more than 500 Filipinos facing the death penalty in various countries for drug-related cases, but in the near future, unless aggressive solutions are taken to solve the problem now, their number may increase and reach thousands.

For many OFWs, drug smuggling presents the attraction of easy money—in some instances more money than they can earn slaving away in a year in a foreign land. For others, it is a case of “kapit sa patalim’’—literally, grasping the cutting edge of a knife to try to survive, or in the American idiom, biting the bullet. They have to bite the bullet because they cannot get good-paying jobs at home and cannot find good jobs abroad, either, because of the global recession. And so they end up as drug mules.

The question is why so many OFWs manage to slip through customs officers at the international airports in the Philippines. The Philippine National Police Aviation Group has admitted that the X-ray machines in the airports do not have the capability to detect drugs. The

MIAA Airport Safety and Security Office, however, said trained and experienced personnel can detect the presence of drugs through “color discrimination.’’

Surely, some funds can be allocated to use drug-sniffing dogs like Belgian Malinois and Jack Russell terriers at the country’s exit points. If some hotels can afford to pay for the services of these dogs and their handlers, we do not see any reason why they cannot similarly be employed at the airports.

But the security people may be bribed to look the other way while luggage containing drugs are checked before being loaded on cargo conveyors or hand-carried bags go through at least two security checks before departure. Well, then, employ undercover people to go after officers and agents acting suspiciously, or install closed-circuit TV to record all security activities.

We have all sorts of police, security and anti-drug organizations. Can’t they act in concert to prevent not just the smuggling in, but also the smuggling out of illegal drugs? The people who should head this coordinated effort should be of unquestioned integrity and incorruptibility, like Elliot Ness’ “The Untouchables.’’

On the legal side, this should be a good time to review all the some 500 cases in which OFWs are facing the death penalty for drug-related crimes. If government lawyers cannot handle all these cases, probably a call should be made for private lawyers to offer their services pro bono to help save some of their countrymen who now face execution.

It is possible that in some cases, the accused OFWs were not given good legal advice and services. Sen. Loren Legarda said that in China, 38 OFWs were sentenced to life imprisonment, 68 to fixed-term imprisonment and 27 are still facing pending cases. There may be some cases where the death penalty, upon review, can be reduced to a lower penalty.

In the cases where the death penalty has been reviewed and affirmed by China’s Supreme Court, there may be little that can be done. As President Benigno Aquino III has said, “Drugs are a worldwide problem and we have to respect their (China’s) sovereignty…’’

On the diplomatic front, the Philippine government could, as suggested by Mr. Aquino, work for “reciprocity.’’ Meaning, that because the Philippines as a matter of principle and policy does not impose the penalty of death on Chinese citizens who violate the Philippine law on drug smuggling, China should be requested to likewise impose the penalty of life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole or pardon, on Filipinos convicted of drug smuggling.

China should be convinced that the Filipinos who smuggled drugs into China are themselves victims—victims of poverty, in the first instance, and victims of the blandishments and trickery of drug smuggling syndicates in the second instance.

Probably China would look more sympathetically and more kindly at OFWs caught trying to smuggle drugs into China if it were convinced that the Philippine government is doing its best to stop the smuggling of drugs out of the country and is also trying its best to dismantle local and foreign syndicates that are engaged in the smuggling of drugs.