Lawmakers: Stop saving drug mules

Two lawmakers have urged the government to stop frantically trying to save convicted drug mules from execution abroad but rather to spend taxpayer money on more worthy causes.

Western Samar Representative Mel Senen Sarmiento said that while it was reasonable to expect the government to help a Filipino suspected of crimes abroad during the trial stage, it should stop interceding once he or she was convicted.

“Once they are found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, the government should stop interceding in their behalf at the expense of law-abiding Filipino taxpayers,” said Sarmiento.

Plain lazy

Iloilo Representative Jerry Treñas, chairman of the House committee on good government and public accountability, said the convicts do not deserve public compassion as they willingly chose to do what they did because they were “lazy” and wanted to get rich quickly.

Treñas cited as an example the unnamed 35-year-old Filipino executed on Dec. 8 in China for smuggling in 1.5 kilos of heroin from Malaysia three years ago.

“(He) had been involved in this illicit activity for quite some time before Chinese authorities caught up with him. According to reports, he used to be a security guard in China but decided to resign from his job and become a full-time drug mule for the obvious reason that he did not want to work hard to earn a living,” said Treñas.

‘Pamasko’

He said Vice President Jejomar Binay typified the government’s propensity to go all-out in trying to save Filipino drug mules from the ultimate penalty as he had been vocal in seeking their reprieve.

Binay even asked the Chinese court to grant a reprieve to the recently condemned Filipino as a “pamasko” or Christmas gift to the Philippines, which has abandoned the death penalty.

Sarmiento said the government should realize that the drug mules “bring us nothing but shame and a dark future for the millions of victims of the drugs that they distribute.”

He found it lamentable that Filipino drug traffickers were being pictured  as “victims rather than criminals.” Gil Cabacungan