2 days ago I found myself really moved by the local media. For some reason it latched onto the story of 3 Filipinos from amongst all the hundreds (officially almost 300) imprisoned overseas for drug smuggling. The 3, 2 women in their early 30s and a man 42, were about to be executed in China for heroin smuggling. All 3 were arrested around the same time in 2008, and had it in their suitcases. Likewise, all had been sent by the same group of Nigerians.
I remember my last trip to Cambodia. There were these 2 young West Africans joined at the hip. They must be there for the long haul because they had their own motorbike. These guys were maybe only 21 or 22 and 1 of them dyed his hair yellow. It doesn't require much of a brain to guess what they were about.
I had been staying at my usual hotel, World Star, on Monviong Blvd the capitol's main drag. I would walk the 1 block to the corner and then turn down the small street leading to Beong Keok Lake, the infamous "Lake" of Backpacker's tales. As I would walk down that 2 block long little street with the giant dilaphidated mosque at the end, ignoring the motordops trying to sell me a ride I didn't need, I would always see those 2 black guys laughing with each other, always parked in front of the mosque's retaining wall.
West Africans in SE Asia have a shitty reputation. In Jakarta the word for African is synonymous with "Putaw Dealer." Putaw being the Heroin #2, Afghan, that is sold domestically there. They have carved out a niche for themselves. The Africans are rarely bothered (though 2 caught an execution in Indonesia in 2006). It is always the very poor SE Asians they have carrying the shit that catch the worst part of the deal.
Despite the Philippine Government groveling for the lives of these 3 Filipinos, China merely consented to a 1 month reprieve. The sentencing there is so strange. For example, 2 other Filipino smugglers were sentenced to death, but then were re-sentenced to "Death with a 2 Year Reprieve," which merely means they get to enjoy 2 more years in a Chinese manufactured hell before facing the Firing Squad. China, always economical, blindfolds you and then uses a single pistol to plug you in the back of your head. Indonesia uses an entire Firing Squad. Maybe Indonesia is worse. Just like Thailand, if you dare to Appeal your draconian sentence you often end up with much worse. Appealing 20 years can get you a Death Sentence.
I was watching the news and in a Tagalog language newscast a brother of 1 of the 2 women recounted the family visit that had just transpired. China grants a 1 hour family visit on the day you are to be shot. The assholes that they are, they don't inform the condemned that they are going to die until they lead them to the killing space, an enclosed courtyard. So here is this 32 year old Filipina who is aware she had been given a Reprieve but no idea she is to die that morning. All of a sudden her cell door opens and in walks teary eyed parents and siblings. He recounted his sister's first comments: "Am I to die today?"
For some reason that really shook me. I find it so infuriating that a powdered substance manufactured from a flower can be used to rationalise the execution of a 32 year old woman, all the more so when she was transporting it. She claims she had no idea it was drugs. Westerners would be incredulous hearing that but the truth of the matter is, an uneducated Filipina is usually that naïve. Her passport revealed it was her first trip abroad. The African who recruited her was her "boyfriend." A Filipina in love is liable to do anything her lover tells her to do.
The whole thing just makes me disgusted.
Then in today's news I saw a story that made me feel like smacking a woman. This past autumn Chinese authorities tipped off the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) that a freighter out of South America, en route to China would be transiting Philippine Territorial Waters with at least 1 metric tonne of cocaine aboard it. The PDEA are like bulls in a china shoppe (no pun intended) and negated any possible chance of suprising the ship. The result was that more than a metric tonne of coke was dumped into the waters off the Visayan Islands, the region immediately north of my island. Sealed water tight, some washed up, a lot more was taken by the thousands of small craft plying these waters and so now the Philippines has a Coke Trade where it could never have supported one before.
Fast forward to yesterday in Cebu City. Police made an undercover buy for 500 Pesos (11 US) worth of "Shabu," the drug of choice in the Philippines. Shabu is locally produced, pharmaceutically pure methamphetamine made specifically for smoking (usually called "Ice" in the US though Americans never see it that pure). It is made by Tawainese professional chemists who come here just to produce it in warehouse sized operations (though an American on my island was just caught for it as well). 500 Pesos buys 3 "Pisos' in Cebu, 3 doses, or "bags."
The police move in to arrest her, they find a bit more Shabu in her house but then find a solid kilo brick of pure coke. So now this dumb woman who kept a kilo for show and tell will spend eternity buried under the prison.
I remember my last trip to Cambodia. There were these 2 young West Africans joined at the hip. They must be there for the long haul because they had their own motorbike. These guys were maybe only 21 or 22 and 1 of them dyed his hair yellow. It doesn't require much of a brain to guess what they were about.
I had been staying at my usual hotel, World Star, on Monviong Blvd the capitol's main drag. I would walk the 1 block to the corner and then turn down the small street leading to Beong Keok Lake, the infamous "Lake" of Backpacker's tales. As I would walk down that 2 block long little street with the giant dilaphidated mosque at the end, ignoring the motordops trying to sell me a ride I didn't need, I would always see those 2 black guys laughing with each other, always parked in front of the mosque's retaining wall.
West Africans in SE Asia have a shitty reputation. In Jakarta the word for African is synonymous with "Putaw Dealer." Putaw being the Heroin #2, Afghan, that is sold domestically there. They have carved out a niche for themselves. The Africans are rarely bothered (though 2 caught an execution in Indonesia in 2006). It is always the very poor SE Asians they have carrying the shit that catch the worst part of the deal.
Despite the Philippine Government groveling for the lives of these 3 Filipinos, China merely consented to a 1 month reprieve. The sentencing there is so strange. For example, 2 other Filipino smugglers were sentenced to death, but then were re-sentenced to "Death with a 2 Year Reprieve," which merely means they get to enjoy 2 more years in a Chinese manufactured hell before facing the Firing Squad. China, always economical, blindfolds you and then uses a single pistol to plug you in the back of your head. Indonesia uses an entire Firing Squad. Maybe Indonesia is worse. Just like Thailand, if you dare to Appeal your draconian sentence you often end up with much worse. Appealing 20 years can get you a Death Sentence.
I was watching the news and in a Tagalog language newscast a brother of 1 of the 2 women recounted the family visit that had just transpired. China grants a 1 hour family visit on the day you are to be shot. The assholes that they are, they don't inform the condemned that they are going to die until they lead them to the killing space, an enclosed courtyard. So here is this 32 year old Filipina who is aware she had been given a Reprieve but no idea she is to die that morning. All of a sudden her cell door opens and in walks teary eyed parents and siblings. He recounted his sister's first comments: "Am I to die today?"
For some reason that really shook me. I find it so infuriating that a powdered substance manufactured from a flower can be used to rationalise the execution of a 32 year old woman, all the more so when she was transporting it. She claims she had no idea it was drugs. Westerners would be incredulous hearing that but the truth of the matter is, an uneducated Filipina is usually that naïve. Her passport revealed it was her first trip abroad. The African who recruited her was her "boyfriend." A Filipina in love is liable to do anything her lover tells her to do.
The whole thing just makes me disgusted.
Then in today's news I saw a story that made me feel like smacking a woman. This past autumn Chinese authorities tipped off the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) that a freighter out of South America, en route to China would be transiting Philippine Territorial Waters with at least 1 metric tonne of cocaine aboard it. The PDEA are like bulls in a china shoppe (no pun intended) and negated any possible chance of suprising the ship. The result was that more than a metric tonne of coke was dumped into the waters off the Visayan Islands, the region immediately north of my island. Sealed water tight, some washed up, a lot more was taken by the thousands of small craft plying these waters and so now the Philippines has a Coke Trade where it could never have supported one before.
Fast forward to yesterday in Cebu City. Police made an undercover buy for 500 Pesos (11 US) worth of "Shabu," the drug of choice in the Philippines. Shabu is locally produced, pharmaceutically pure methamphetamine made specifically for smoking (usually called "Ice" in the US though Americans never see it that pure). It is made by Tawainese professional chemists who come here just to produce it in warehouse sized operations (though an American on my island was just caught for it as well). 500 Pesos buys 3 "Pisos' in Cebu, 3 doses, or "bags."
The police move in to arrest her, they find a bit more Shabu in her house but then find a solid kilo brick of pure coke. So now this dumb woman who kept a kilo for show and tell will spend eternity buried under the prison.