A MEASURE imposing the death penalty against recruiters of Filipino drug couriers has been filed at the House of Representatives.
House Bill 5874, filed by the chairman of the Committee on Dangerous Drugs, Liberal Party Rep. Vicente F. Belmonte Jr. of Lone District of Iligan City, seeks to amend Section 5 of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 1992, which pertains to the sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation of dangerous drugs and controlled precursors and essential chemicals.
The bill defines a recruiter as person who is using his or her influence, power or position in canvassing, enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring persons to be a drug courier.
In filing the bill, Belmonte said that despite the continuing campaign of law-enforcement agencies against the illicit trade, drug syndicates have become fearless and resourceful in plying their nefarious trade utilizing drug couriers.
“Some drug couriers who were apprehended here and abroad told police authorities that fellow Filipinos recruited them for employment abroad but were later on duped into transporting illegal drugs,” Belmonte said.
He said that of the 1,288 Filipinos who were arrested for drug-related offenses, 41 are facing the death penalty.
Filipinos who are in death row include 18 in Malaysia, 21 in China, one in Saudi Arabia and one in Indonesia—Mary Jane Veloso—who was given a temporary reprieve by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Belmonte said.
Veloso was arrested in 2010 in Indonesia upon her arrival from Malaysia for transporting 2.6 kilograms of heroin concealed in her luggage.
In addition, Belmonte said a Nigerian syndicate based in Malaysia is behind the recruitment of Filipinas as drug couriers to China.
“In one incident, a Filipina was even arrested carrying nine capsules of heroin in her privates, 48 capsules in her rectum and 11 capsules in her intestine,” Belmonte said.