NEW Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived on his first state visit to the Philippines on Sunday, even as the fate of a Filipina facing execution for drug smuggling in his country hovers over planned talks. Widodo arrived at the Villamor Air Base at 5 pm at the invitation of President Benigno Aquino III. He and Aquino will sign four agreements, including one on anti-drug trafficking during his two-day state visit. "Four agreements will be signed: memoranda of understanding on cooperation in combating narcotics, cooperation in technical vocation education and training, cooperation in education, research and training in the field of defense studies, as well as a joint declaration on the protection of migrants and migrant workers," Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said. [continues 382 words]
The government now fears for the life of the Filipina "with movie star looks" who allegedly served as a drug syndicate "mule" to smuggle some five kilos of cocaine into Thailand, but was caught during a stopover in Kuala Lumpur last week. Officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs said there is a real danger that the drug ring that sent Jaquiline Nino Quiemno, 25, of San Fernando, La Union to carry the cocaine into Kuala Lumpur may be planning to silence Quiemno, who has started cooperating with the police. [continues 275 words]
Do jueteng and be infamous locally, but deal drugs and get notorious globally. The United States Central Intelligence Agency has kept the Philippines in its list of major marijuana exporters, recognizing the country's role as "transit point" for heroin and shabu. In its latest World Factbook released by the CIA, the US spy agency said the Philippine government has tarried in curbing drug production and trafficking. "The Philippine exports locally produced marijuana and hashish to East Asia, the US and other Western markets (and) serves as a transit point for heroin and crystal methamphetamine (shabu). Domestic methamphetamine production is a growing problem," it noted. Heroin is produced when morphine derived from opium poppy plants is acetylated and combined with sodium carbonate. Countries allegedly growing poppy include Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Afghanistan, India, Turkey and Tasmania. [end]
Washington has branded the Philippine National Police as "the worst abuser of human rights" in the country in the 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices it released yesterday. The US State Department said that based on the information received from the Commission on Human Rights, local policemen are the no. 1 violator in the Philippines. "Police and local government leaders at times appeared to sanction extrajudicial killings and vigilantism as an expedient means of fighting crime and terrorism," the report said. [continues 198 words]
The United States government yesterday clarified that the Philippines is not an exporter of heroin but only a transit point in the region. US embassy press officer Ruth Urry said a careful reading of the CIA World Factbook 2004 would show that the Philippines produces and trades locally grown marijuana but not heroin. "The CIA has a factbook for every country. If you study the text, you would see that the Philippines is only a transit point, not an exporter," she said in an interview. [continues 291 words]
