HOW many, they say, have been killed in the war on drugs? Twenty thousand, ten thousand or a few hundreds? And most of them are small-time drug runners? And, except perhaps for two, like us, brown-skinned and all?
In China, a number of Filipinos have been executed, also in the course of their war on drugs. Their offense: they were drug mules, the wretched souls who transport drugs for the equivalent of a few thousand pesos in behalf of drug syndicates that rake in billions from the vastly profitable trade.
I do not know if the drugs, mostly shabu, that are peddled in our country do come from China as many believe. What is undeniable is that in almost all cases in which huge quantities of shabu were discovered, there was at least one Chinese national involved.
Remember the so-called mega shabu lab in Mandaue? On Sept. 24, 2004, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency raided a warehouse in Umapad and arrested a dozen men, all but two of whom sported Chinese-sounding names. In fact, five of them were Chinese nationals, three were Taiwanese and two were Malaysians.
Eleven of them, including the two Filipino accomplices, were eventually convicted by then Mandaue Regional Trial Court Judge Marilyn Yap of manufacturing 635 kilos of shabu with an estimated value of P1.3 billion. The case against the 12th was dismissed after he turned state witness.
Prior to their conviction, the Mega Shabu 12 were detained at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center where they were mainstays of then Gov. Gwen Garcia’s world-renowned dance troupe. I do not know where they were sent after they were convicted but I am sure it was not to six feet under the ground, unlike our compatriots who were executed for the comparatively minuscule offense of acting as couriers of smaller quantities of drugs.
Last Tuesday, the Pdea seized P1.1 billion worth of shabu inside the Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa. For the benefit of the uninitiated, Ayala Alabang is the enclave of the wealthiest, the most powerful and the most influential in the country.
A large bulk of the drugs was found inside a two-story house that was leased to tenants who paid a fortune by way of rentals but who apparently did not live there, according to the Pdea, because they did not find any furniture in the house or any sign that it had been inhabited.
Who rented the house? As you must have guessed, Chinese nationals, two of them. But unlike the physically handicapped boy whom the police said they killed in self-defense, the Chinese apparently did not provide the arresting officers reason to neutralize them.
So the worst that can happen to them is that they will be sentenced to jail and after they have served out their sentence or are pardoned or otherwise released under any arrangement, they will be asked to board the plane to China and there tell their tale.
When you think of our brother Filipinos who came home in coffins after breaching China’s tight anti-drug laws, you cannot but be revolted by the utter lopsidedness of it all.