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MANILA, Philippines—Lydia found nothing wrong with accepting the romantic relationship and affluent life outside the country offered by a foreigner she just met in an online chat room.
In fact, for someone whose every day was partial to and limited by rural poverty, it was a promising invitation.
Promising, had the proposal been free from ill intentions. So when Lydia succumbed and got in too deep to realize that all was a lie, she saw herself struggling to get out of the situation, even experiencing swallowing drugs and literally being lost in the middle of nowhere.
To Susan Ople, president of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, this scenario is common in the latest scheme of illegal foreign cartels now recruiting Filipinos to take part in worldwide drug operations.
‘Syndicated crime’
“It’s a syndicated crime,” she said, adding that most targets of the felony are Pinays who live in the provinces, family breadwinners, and first-time overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). “Poverty is the push factor,” she said. “It’s usually Nigerians enticing the Filipinas, asking them to be their girlfriends before completely luring them into becoming drug mules.”
Ople said the syndicates use women—sometimes even those who are pregnant—because the Bureau of Customs is more lenient when it comes to dealing with them. The women are also not likely to retaliate once forced to do labor, she said.
They can even double as prostitutes, she added.
The Ople Center, a nonprofit organization in Pasay City at the back of the Department of Foreign Affairs, was established in 2005. It gives assistance to OFWs, especially those victimized by illegal recruitment since “there is little that the government could do to protect them.”
Today, there are 500 Filipino detainees slapped with drug charges all over the world, at least 200 of whom are in China, she said.
Different case
The modus operandi is not restricted to online chats.
A single mother who dreams of providing her family a better life, Joana was offered a clerical position in Lima, Peru, and was given plane tickets and a $3,000 pocket money.
After landing in Peru, she was ordered by her recruiter to stay in a hotel where she met a Peruvian employee married to a policeman who soon informed her that many Filipinos there were incarcerated because of drugs.
The warning confounded her as she was later on commanded to transfer to another hotel, which was already in the outskirts of the city, and asked to wait for further instructions.
The recruiter shortly opened up to her: “You’re there to deliver drugs. After you deliver the package, you’d be given $500.”
Swallowing drugs
Things got complicated when the syndicate and the seller were unable to agree on the price at once. Joana was left hanging and was instead directed by her local recruiter to go to Sao Paolo, Brazil, where she would meet someone who would give her drugs slipped in latex for her to ingest and later defecate upon reaching Malaysia, another meet-up spot.
Swallowing drugs and not being able to release them at the given time, usually an hour, could result in poisoning. A separate case was reported by the Ople Center wherein a Filipina suffered this fate after her flight had been delayed.
Ingenious tactics
Joana knew things have already gotten out of hand so she phoned home and asked for help. She was given assistance and was successfully repatriated in March.
“Most victims are like her,” Ople said. “They aren’t aware of the real deal, but later on, they would notice and wouldn’t be able to say no. Some, though, just go for it. They are paid per delivery of the drugs.”
In a recent report issued by the Philippine embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, a Filipina sought the embassy’s help after being stranded in Vietnam on her way to China, where she was bound to deliver a package from Cambodia.
The Filipina revealed she was booked for a job that entailed “a lot of traveling” with a salary of $2,000 per trip. She was sent to Vietnam to secure a Chinese visa, then was asked to bring “something” from a friend in Cambodia to China.
As the request was guised as a simple favor, she had no knowledge she was already being used as a means to transport drugs.
“We have a moral dilemma here,” Ople said. “You see, even in our borders, for a time, being involved in drugs is a heinous crime punishable by death. So we’re confronted if we’d use our diplomatic ties to negotiate for the commutation of sentence of someone arrested for drugs, either for drug use or drug trafficking.
“Of course, we don’t want to project the image that we tolerate these transnational crimes.”
