Yesterday, we heard about three Filipinos who were executed through lethal injection in China. The 3 Filipinos are Ramon Credo, 42; Elizabeth Batain, 38; and Sally Villanueva, 32. Separately arrested in 2008, the three were convicted for each smuggling between 4,000 and 6,800 grams of heroin either in Xiamen and Shenzen. The families of the three convicted individuals insisted their loved ones were mere victims of drug syndicates recruiting Filipinos to travel to China without their knowledge that they are carrying illegal drugs in their baggage.

Also yesterday, we heard about seventeen-year-old Rachel Anne Hachero, an honor student at the exclusive Canterbury School in Fort Myers Florida, who had been accepted into several Ivy League schools on scholarship. But Hachero’s future is now uncertain after being accused of pistol-whipping her mother and forcing her to co-sign a car loan at gunpoint. The teenager is facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, unlawful possession of a firearm by a person younger than 18, and battery.

And today, Asian Boyz Gang founder, Marvin Mercado was sentenced with 8 consecutive life sentences for 1990s killing spree that included eight murders in a quest to make his gang the most feared in Los Angeles.The judge sentenced him to the life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders. He also was given 10 consecutive 15-year-to-life sentences for 10 attempted murders, and 50 years on weapons and other charges, also to be served consecutively.

People always say that things happen in threes. So far, these are three incidents in one week. I hope no more bad news regarding our kabayans.

Sally Villanueva, 32

Ramon Credo,42

Elizabeth Batain, 38

“…sapagkat silay biktima ng sistemang nagtulak sa milyun-milyong Pilipino na mangibang bayan, tiisin ang lungkot at pangungulila at harapin ang banta ng pang-aabuso at di makataong pagtrato sa paggawa, dahil sa kawalan ng oportunidad sa sariling bayan.”

Drug dealer on his way to be executed in China

There are no ifs and buts about it now. The fate of Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Elizabeth Batain and Ramon Credo, all overseas Filipino workers (OFW), who have been convicted of drug trafficking in China, is sealed. It’s only a matter of time before they get executed.

“The verdict is the final verdict. The penalty will be carried out sooner or later and everything will be done in accordance with the law in China,” Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao announced to reporters recently.

Villanueva was apprehended for smuggling 4,110 grams of heroin on Dec. 24, 2008 in Xiamen. Credo was also nabbed in Xiamen for possession of 4,113 grams of heron on Dec. 28, 2008 and Batain was caught carrying 6,800 grams of heroin on May 24, 2008 in Shenzhen.

The short deferment of their execution, which was made by our government’s pleading through Vice President Jejomar Binay, was an exercise in futility.

Obviously, we violated China’s laws by committing the grave offense of drug smuggling which is punishable by death and there is not much we can do about it.

What is saddening and deploring is that the innocent Filipino victims were couched to smuggle the drugs, allegedly, by foreign nationals they have come to befriend in the country. Once trapped, there is no turning back, hiding or squealing as you will only be putting your life and that of your family at risk. You have become a marked man.

Being naïve and trusting, which are trademarks of innocence, and hoping that they will be stepping on to a rosy path abroad, which will ensure a better future for them and their families, accepting and doing the miscreants a favor is a big and essential deal for the struggling Filipinos.

Until they get caught, shamed, manhandled and thrown to jail, that’s the only time these innocent souls realize their mistakes.

Almost always these are the kind of story that comes out from the mouth of jailed Filipino drug mules.

Is there anything that our country’s police agencies can do?

Certainly there is, if only there exists a close coordination and cooperation between government agencies tasked to monitor arrivals of suspicious foreign nationals in the country and the police and NBI.

This will, definitely, include also entry of Chinese nationals in the country, who have always been blamed as those behind the surreptitious business of manufacturing illegal drugs every time a raid is done on a suspected establishment.

I am not saying that this is tit-for-tat. No. What I simply mean to say is that, as much as possible, let us not allow foreign nationals, whether Chinese or Africans, to flood our country with illegal drugs and victimize our countrymen into becoming drug mules.

Empty chair belongs to Chinese winner

Now it can be told.

Many democratic governments abroad and cynics in the country, to include the human rights activist, wondered, nay questioned, why President Benigno Aquino did not attend the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony for detained Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in Oslo in December last year.

It must be remembered that PNoy drew unfavorable remarks for not sending even a representative to the ceremony which was attended by no less than 45 countries and dignified by the presence of high-ranking US officials.

It has now been reported that the real reason for Aquino’s boycott of the Nobel rites is to assuage and support the Chinese government in the hope of being able to secure in return from them mercy and compassion for the lives of a number of Filipinos on death row because of drug related cases.

Included in his plea for leniency then were for the the lives Ramon Credo, 42, Sally Villanueva, 32, and Elizabeth Batain, 38, who are all reported to be executed this month.

We can only hope that President Aquino’s magnanimity shown to the Chinese during the Nobel rites will be matched with Chinese humanitarian concern over the plight of the Filipinos given the death penalty.

We can only pray that Vice President Jejomar Binay will find success in his hurried trip to China as he seeks commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment for the three convicted Filipinos.