As slow as a turtle
“If not for the media, including Usapang OFW, the DMW and the DFA may not have been moved to act fast enough on the complaint of the seafarers’ families.
Daily Tribune“If not for the media, including Usapang OFW, the DMW and the DFA may not have been moved to act fast enough on the complaint of the seafarers’ families.
The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed last week the execution through lethal injection of two Filipinos in China after the final appeal of their death sentence was turned down, including the Philippine government's plea that they be meted out the lesser penalty of life imprisonment.
According to the DFA, the Philippine government has exhausted all efforts, including legal, since day one of the filing of charges against the two Filipinos who were caught trying to bring the illegal drug shabu out of China in 2013.
The DFA emphasized that China's legal processes and laws, just like in all countries like the Philippines, should be respected as nations have sovereign rights within their borders, including the imposition of criminal penalties.
DFA's warning to all Filipinos traveling abroad not to serve as drug couriers or mules, wittingly or unwittingly, should not be taken lightly.
The executions in China, where two other Filipinos are also on death row again on drug trafficking charges, should clearly illustrate the grave criminal consequences of cross-border narcotics trafficking.
This brings us to the plight of eight Filipino seafarers who were arrested and have been languishing in jail in Algeria after 35.8 kilograms of cocaine were discovered at the Port of Algiers aboard a Maltese-flagged container vessel, the MV Harris.
In interviews by DAILY TRIBUNE's digital show Usapang OFW, it has come to light that the eight had been lumped in jail with 58 hardened criminals even though they were yet to be charged.
Captain Edgardo Flores, a consultant of the Eastern Mediterranean Manning Company, which hired the eight seafarers, last month lambasted both the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, headed by the rarely seen Arnell Ignacio, and the Department of Migrant Workers led by Hans Leo Cacdac as officer-in-charge.
If not for the media, including Usapang OFW, the DMW, and the DFA may not have been moved to act fast enough on the complaint of the seafarers' families that their loved ones had been arrested over the discovery of the cocaine aboard the ship, something that the mariners have no control over.
Cacdac even had to give what may pass off as a half-baked apology to the seafarers' families after he stood them up in a Zoom meeting that his own staffer set up. The meeting eventually proceeded, but only after the "snub" was ventilated again by TRIBUNE.
Hopefully, with a new judge taking over the first one who sat on the case, the case of the eight Filipino seafarers could now proceed as they are just among the many seafarers facing the same dilemma of their ships being used by drug syndicates in their nefarious trade.
Checking on every cargo onboard a ship is the duty of port authorities and, at most, officers of the vessel, thus, the liability when drugs and other contraband are found should not rest on lowly seafarers like the eight Filipinos.
At the start of this piece, we noted the DFA, emphasizing that it provided every help to the two executed Filipinos in China at the very onset. We'd like to believe that, except for many instances that say otherwise, like what Flores lamented regarding OWWA's inaction (Ignacio should ship out if he's not up to the task) and DMW's "belated" action.
Then, there's that Alpha Assistenza SRL case, which takes the cake, with Filipinos in Milan running to the Italian police and, yes, Usapang OFW, over what they said was Milan Consul General Elmer Cato's inaction on their case.
Cato, who has photos and videos hobnobbing with Alpha owners Krizelle Respicio and Frederick Dutaro, remains Milan consul general despite calls by Filipinos in Italy for his recall. Well, that's tenacity for you —in clinging to a post. Speaks a lot, too, about Cato's backer in the government.
Over the weekend, Senator Bong Go expressed dismay that three months since Usapang OFW broke the story on the Alpha Assistenza "scam" that fleeced each of the about 400 "victims" upwards of 2,500 euros (roughly P150,000) each, the cases against Respicio and Dutaro have taken a long time to be resolved.
That's precisely the wish of those who lost money to Alpha Assistenza: File the cases in court now.