China Orders Lethal Injection For Drug Smuggling

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

MANILA, PhilippinesAppeals have been abandoned in China as three Philippine citizens are executed after drug smuggling conviction.

The two women and one man, Elizabeth Batain, 38, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, 32, and Ramon Credo, 42 were arrested on separate occasions carrying packages containing at least 8lb (4kg) of heroin.

Activists and supporters light candles with slogans during an overnight vigil in suburban Quezon City, north of Manila, Philippines on Tuesday March 29, 2011.f
Activists and supporters light candles with slogans during an overnight vigil in suburban Quezon City, north of Manila, Philippines on Tuesday March 29, 2011.f

They were the first Filipinos to be executed in China for drug trafficking, Philippine officials said.

The families of two of the prisoners had sent open letters appealing for leniency, arguing they had been conned by others.

China’s foreign ministry considers drug trafficking to be a serious offence and that justice had been served.

The three Philippine nationals were executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.

China normally does not announce executions. Amnesty International says China is the world’s biggest executioner, with thousands of convicts killed every year. The Philippines has abolished the death penalty.

Edwin Lacierda, Philippine presidential spokesman, issued a statement after receiving news of the executions: “Their deaths are a vivid lesson in the tragic toll the drug trade takes on entire families.”

He said the government will act strongly to battle drug organizations. “We are resolved to ensure that the chain of victimization, as pushers entrap and destroy lives in pursuit of their trade, will be broken,” he said.

Prayer vigils and special masses were organized in Manila and other cities in the days before the executions were carried out, in the hope of a “miracle” reprieve for the three convicts; reports Jaime FlorCruz, CNN.

“No miracles happened,” wrote Rodel Rodis, a lawyer based in San Francisco, in his posting on Facebook. Rodis opposed the executions, saying “they are human beings with families and they were just dupes of drug syndicates.”

Ramon Tulfo, a prominent multi-media commentator in Manila, had a different view. “We have a lot of things to cry over, so let’s not waste our tears on three convicted criminals who brought shame to our country,” Tulfo wrote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “If we continue to plead for (their lives), we might give the impression that our country is a haven of drug mules. Let’s allow the Chinese people to carry out their harsh antidrug trafficking law, as we would expect them to carry out ours in case Chinese (are) caught trying to smuggle drugs into our country.”

The three Filipinos were originally scheduled for execution on February 20, but China agreed to postpone the executions after Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay traveled to Beijing to plead on their behalf.

The three had not been told they would be executed Wednesday, although their sentences were publicized early in the day, Philippine Consul Noel Novicio said.

“They gave us only one hour (with her). They have no mercy,” Ordinario-Villanueva’s sister, Maylene Ordinario, said in a text message from Xiamen to her family in the Philippines.

Jayson Ordinario, Ordinario-Villanueva’s younger brother, said last week that his sister was hired as a cellphone dealer in Xiamen and was tricked into carrying a bag that had a secret compartment loaded with heroin, allegedly by her job recruiter.

Aquino urged Filipinos to remain calm, he said while the three were convicted of drug trafficking, they could also be considered victims of unscrupulous recruiters and drug traffickers, and of a society unable to provide enough jobs at home.

“Our ultimate goal is to create a situation where people are not pressured to resort to these things, where they can find enough gainful employment in the Philippines,” he added.

Around 10 percent of the Philippines’ 94 million people work abroad to escape a lifestyle of poverty and unemployment.

For more information, please see:

TIME – China Executes 3 Filipino Drug Mules – 30 March 2011

BBC – China executes three Filipinos for drugs smuggling – 30 March 2011

CNN – China executes three Filipinos for drug smuggling – 30 March 2011

The Washington Post – Philippines says China executes 3 Filipinos convicted of drug smuggling despite appeals – 30 March 2011

Author: Impunity Watch Archive