Death and syndicates

I looked at online editions of various newspapers for coverage of the Indonesian executions and found that the most comprehensive accounts were in the Sydney Morning Herald, the British newspaper The Guardian and the Jakarta Post.

I thought I should summarize the accounts around two issues: the executions themselves and what they tell us about the death penalty, and, a bigger issue that looms ahead, that of drug syndicates. The first story is one of hope, the other of chilling horror that has many implications for Filipinos.

First the executions, which Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called “cruel and unnecessary.” He explained that the executions were “unnecessary” because at least the two Australian nationals were known to have been totally rehabilitated while in prison for some nine years. One, Andrew Chan, studied theology and had become a pastor. The other, Myuran Sukumaran, turned to painting and was close to getting a degree in fine arts.

If Mary Jane Veloso had not been given a reprieve, she would have joined Chan, Sukumaran and six other men. It was reported that the eight chose not to be blindfolded, and to face the firing squad on their feet. (They had a choice of sitting, standing, or kneeling.)

Wrongful conviction

The eight were tied to poles side by side. They were reported to have sung the Protestant hymn “Amazing Grace” and were into another religious song, “Lord O My Soul,” when the executioners were ordered to fire.

Suspicions of wrongful conviction remain. There is our own Mary Jane Veloso, who was not provided a competent interpreter during her trial, and whose claims of having been framed were disregarded. Veloso was given a reprieve only because her illegal recruiter had sought to be taken into police custody, and the Indonesian government emphasizes that she can still be executed.

On April 27 the Sydney Morning Herald featured an interview with Muhammad Rifan, former lawyer of the two Australian nationals. He described how he had met with the judges to bargain with the sentencing. The judges allegedly asked for 1 billion rupiah (roughly P3 million) to mete out sentences below 20 years.

But the judges supposedly met again with Rifan and said that higher authorities wanted a death sentence, which meant that higher bribes needed to be paid. Rifan refused to make a higher offer, a decision which he regrets as a “miscalculation” because the judges then imposed the death penalty.

One of the judges has denied that negotiations took place; another one said she opposed the death penalty but was overruled.

Bali 9

The suspicions of judicial anomalies will remain because of the way sentences were imposed on the rest of the “Bali 9,” a term which has been erroneously used on the ones who were scheduled for execution last Wednesday. I also made the mistake and found out that “Bali 9” refers to nine men—including the two executed Australian nationals—who were arrested in 2005 in Bali when they were preparing to leave for Australia with 8.3 kilos of heroin.

Australian police had tipped off the Indonesians on heroin shipments.

It is amazing how the sentences kept getting changed. For example, one of them, Si Yi Chen, was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2006, which was then reduced to 20 years in April. When government prosecutors asked for an “upgrade” of this 20-year sentence back to life imprisonment, the poor man was given the death penalty in September that year. With further appeals, Chen’s sentence was again reduced to life imprisonment.

The Bali 9 case can make for a movie thriller. Besides the nine arrested by Indonesian police, there was a Nepali, Man Singh Ghale, who was supposedly shot to death while arresting arrest. Witnesses claim seeing him being brought out of the house still alive, so there are suspicions that he was liquidated by the police because he knew too much… about the police.

Because Ghale was liquidated, the international police have lost possible leads to other members of what seems to be a large international syndicate. A Thai sex worker, Chery Likibamakom, who is believed to have been the one who delivered the heroin to the Bali 9, was apprehended in Bali but was able to slip away. She is believed to have died since then. This syndicate is believed to have contacts in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Thailand, China and parts of Africa and Europe.

Which takes us back to the Philippines and the “surrender” of Maria Kristina Pasadilla Sergio, described as an “illegal recruiter” who got Mary Jane Veloso into this whole mess back in 2010.

Sergio, who was Veloso’s neighbor and was known in the community for her frequent trips to and from Malaysia, had offered Veloso work in Kuala Lumpur. Veloso took up the offer and flew to Kuala Lumpur with Sergio. But before even starting on a job, she was told to go to Yogyakarta in Indonesia to meet with some people. She was given a bag in which to put her personal belongings. When Veloso got to

Yogyakarta, the airport’s X-rays detected hidden stuff in the bag, which turned out to be heroin.

International syndicate

Sergio is clearly more than just an illegal recruiter. She is part of an international syndicate, and has turned herself in to authorities because, she said, she had been getting death threats.

Heroin is hardly used by drug dependents in the Philippines, so Sergio seems to have been connected to a syndicate serving nearby countries, notably Indonesia and its popular international tourist destinations like Bali. Mary Jane Veloso’s fateful “drug mule” route was from Malaysia to Indonesia.

Sergio has reason to fear for her life. These international syndicates, which most certainly include colluding police and so-called law enforcers, are ruthless.

Illegal recruitment takes on a new, more sinister and dangerous face with these drug syndicates. And because there are so many overseas Filipino workers who can be used as drug mules, Mary Jane Veloso will not be the last of hapless victims of these global criminals.

* * *

Email: mtan@inquirer.com.ph