DoJ: NBI hot on trail of international drug syndicates victimizing OFWs

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said government investigators have been tasked to go after recruiters for employment abroad who are being used as fronts for transnational criminal syndicates which use Filipino workers a drug couriers.

Speaking to newsmen De Lima said of particular interest are the recruiters of Sally Ordinario Villanueva, the 32-year-old mother of two sentenced to die by lethal injection in China next week along with two other Filipinos.

“I already instructed the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) to investigate and to look for that alleged recruiter that was responsible for the contraband brought by Sally. In general, (the NBI has also been ordered) to investigate and look for other recruiters and members of syndicates responsible for making mules or couriers out of our OFWs. That is an express instruction from the President — that there must be accredited members of criminal syndicates or recruiters which use out countrymen who end up being arrested in other countries,” she said.

As of press time, the DoJ chief said they are still waitng for the report of the NBI that has reportedly arrested a suspect in Ordinario’s case.

“I expect some reports from NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula,” De Lima said, adding that despite the OFWs’ versions of what happened the same may not be appreciated in another country’s legal system.

“These countries have their own legal system so if they (OFWs) went through the process it will be too late for us. The measures being done by the government now is preventive to run after the syndicates and also illegal recruiters.

Aside from Ordinario, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the death penalty will be carried out against two other Filipinos, a 42-year-old male who was convicted for smuggling 4,113 grams of heroin on Dec. 28, 2008 in Xiamen and a female, 38, convicted for smuggling 6,800 grams of heroin on May 24, 2008 in Shenzhen.

Sally started working as a domestic helper in Macau in 2006. When her contract ended, she went back to the Philippines but was again recruited to work as a cell phone store helper in China. Before the mother of two left for China, her recruiter told her to bring a luggage for their boss.

The Supreme People’s Court in Beijing has reviewed and decided on five cases of Filipinos sentenced to death by courts in the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong for drug trafficking.

The two other Filipinos earlier meted the death penalty were given two-year reprieves. Under Chinese law, the original verdict may be commuted to life imprisonment if the prisoner displays good behavior while incarcerated. The smuggling of 50 grams or more of heroin or equivalent drugs is punishable by death. –Benjamin B. Pulta, Daily Tribune