JEDDAH, 25 August — The recent revelations of military intelligence chief Col. Victor Corpus that Sen. Panfilo Lacson is allegedly deeply involved in drug trafficking, and that if he isn’t exposed now the Philippines will eventually have him as president, rang true. The unfortunate truth is that today we are all living in a “narco-state.”

Anyone who has watched the movie “Traffic” will agree with the film’s premise that fighting drugs and drug traffickers is a losing battle. Most countries in the world have been either targeted or in some cases, such as Colombia, thoroughly infiltrated by drug syndicates. The Philippines with its endless miles of unprotected coastline and lowly-paid law enforcement officials (meaning they are easily bribed), make it a perfect target for the Chinese Triad gangs whose main lines of business are drug manufacturing and distribution, gambling and prostitution.

The Philippines has been targeted with shabu (the local name of methamphetamine hydrochloride) because the drug is cheap to manufacture, is transportable in either powder or liquid forms, and is highly addictive (bringing much repeat business from hooked customers). Huge shabu laboratories have been set up in China, where shabu is pumped out and shipped around the world. The Philippines is geographically the perfect transit point for a lot of the shabu trade. It can be easily smuggled through boats or by being mixed in with legitimate cargo that is cleared by Philippine Customs to enter the country through the Green lane, where only spot checks are made, if at all.

The drug syndicates must have thought initially when they started transshipping their stuff through the Philippines, “why not let the local population get hooked on it too?” And so began the local sale of one of the most destructive drugs in Philippine history.  Today, drug pushers can be found almost everywhere in most Philippine cities, making one believe that they must have police protection and that higher authorities are either paid off to look the other way, or are deeply themselves involved.

I have personally seen the destructive power of shabu and how it can wipe out someone’s life in just a few blinks. A Filipino acquaintance of mine began using the drug last year and started missing days of work. His absences became so regular, and his excuses so forced, that management at work warned him if he missed another day of work he would be fired. Sure enough he did and was promptly terminated, and is now returning to the Philippines where he can only dream of getting a job that paid him the equivalent of 63,000 pesos a month.

I don’t know what the solution is to rid Philippine society of such a scourge. But one thing is clear, Filipinos must not vote for politicians who are heavily implicated in the drug trade.

The experience of having Joseph Estrada, with all of his sleazy smuggler friends, sit in Malaca?ang Palace as president, should have taught Filipinos that one mistake shouldn’t be repeated.

To read more about Lacson and Estrada’s alleged links to drug syndicates, bank robbers and kidnap gangs, visit this site on the Internet: http://www.geocities.com/pinglacson2001/. I printed off 26 A-4 size pages of information from the site. I visited the site earlier this year when I was living in Manila, but was bothered by the site having no sources for the information, nor mentioning who created the site.

A friend suggested that perhaps military intelligence or some police officers were behind the site. Perhaps, but in any case the detailed information contained on the site, including dates and names of victims of police brutality/corruption, is convincing and disturbing.

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A maid’s ordeal

TWO years after killing her Emirati employer, domestic helper Mary Jane Ramos was freed last week from a United Arab Emirates jail and flown home to freedom. This is the second time in the UAE that a Filipina maid has been freed after killing her male employer for attempted rape. The first case was Sarah Balabagan.

It is heartening that UAE courts have obviously taken the circumstances in which the both murders were committed into account when sentencing the two women. Of course, immense amounts of time and effort were expended by Philippine government officials lobbying judicial officials on behalf of the domestic helpers. But one can only wonder if the same women had committed the same crimes under the same circumstances in say Singapore, would they have escaped the death penalty? After the Flor Contemplacion debacle, the answer is only too clear.

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Flogging illegal immigrants

SPEAKING of Singapore, I just read that Malaysia has changed its laws to include flogging as one of the punishments meted out to illegal immigrants. Malaysia is just following the footsteps of Singapore, which has been flogging its illegal immigrants for years now.

While Singapore is regularly praised for its high standard of living and gleaming skyscrapers, when it comes to legal matters involving foreigners it’s a completely different story in my book.

Singapore and Malaysia should be condemned for such practices. Since when is looking for a better life a crime punishable by flogging? Go ahead and arrest overstayers and deport them, but don’t flog humans for wanting to make a decent living. That’s absurd!

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