2 teacher OFWs moonlighting as 'drug mules' nabbed

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has arrested two overseas Filipino teachers who were moonlighting as "drug mules" to China, a television report said Tuesday. A report aired over GMA’s 24 Oras said the two Filipinos were identified as 23-year-old kindergarten teacher Mary Jane Vargas and Salvador Alberto, also a teacher in China. NBI Director Nestor Mantaring said the two were arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Manila for carrying more than 800 grams of heroin. “After the arrest of the two in the Philippines, we sent agents to Malaysia to coordinate with the Malaysian police," Mantaring told GMA News. He said Nigerian syndicates would pay each “drug mule" like Vargas and Alberto $3,000 or more than P145,000 to smuggle illegal substances from Malaysia and the Philippines to China. Dangerous Drugs Board chairman Vicente “Tito" Sotto III wondered why many Filipinos continue to take the risk when they could face the death penalty if caught in China. “These West Africans don't do it themselves because they get caught, they know they will get caught kaya lang ang titigas ng ibang mga kababayan natin, alam namang mahuhuli sinusugalan pa (but our fellow Filipinos are so hard-headed they know they will get caught yet they still do it), it’s not worth it," said Sotto. Senate probe sought Expressing alarm over the increasing number of Filipino “drug mules," Senator Manuel Villar filed Senate Resolution (SRN) 1192 asking the Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs to find out what’s going on. “The situation is worsening and the number of Filipinos, particularly OFWs, being victimized by drug syndicates is significantly increasing. The Philippines is fast gaining a negative reputation for it. More than that, many our fellow Filipinos’ lives are put on the line," said Villar in a press statement. He cited records from the Blas Ople Center saying there are now more than 500 drug cases involving Filipinos in different parts of the world. The Philippines ranks fifth in methamphetamine seizures from 1998 to 2007, according to the United Nations’ office on Drug And Crime 2009 World Drug Report. In mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, Philippine Ambassador to Beijing Sonia Brady reported that a total of 158 Filipinos – mostly women – have been arrested for drug trafficking as of June 7. [See: Number of Filipino drug mules increasing] In 2008 alone, 111 Filipinos were arrested for drug-related offenses in the Chinese territories, representing a 594-percent increase from the 16 arrested in 2007. Of those arrested in 2007 and 2008, 22 are facing death sentence, 12 have gotten life, while 11 have been made to serve 15-16 years prison terms. Modus operandi Villar said a majority of the arrests had stemmed from narcotic drugs being found in the suspects' luggage supposedly given to them by people they met in a transit country—usually Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, Laos and Vietnam. The members of foreign drug rings give Filipino mules tickets and pocket money to travel to Hong Kong or to Mainland China and promise to pay the carriers upon delivery of the drugs to their destination. Villar said his office just rescued a female OFW who was about to do her first ‘drug mule’ assignment. The woman went to Malaysia on a tourist visa where she met and was recruited by a Nigerian married to a Filipina to get a package from Peru. "Thankfully, she got out of the syndicate in time and is now back in the Philippines," said Villar. He said there should be immediate and definite actions from the government to crack down the drug syndicates that lure Filipinos to work as drug mules. "OFWs should be more careful and be forewarned about the modus operandi of the people involved in these syndicates. They should not get carried away by enticing job offers however desperate they may be as these may endanger their lives," Villar said. ] - Kimberly Jane T. Tan and Amita O. Legaspi, GMANews.TV