Guingona acts on jailed Pinoy’s case in Dubai

Vice President and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teofisto Guingona Jr. has directed the Philippine Embassy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) to extend all possible assistance to a Filipino worker now languishing in jail there for taking drugs prescribed by his doctor in the Philippines.

He authorized the remittance of $2,500 to engage the services of a lawyer to file an appeal with the Dubai Appellate Court.

Last Jan. 13, Antonio Sanmillan, who used to work at the Seashell Inn, American Dream in Dubai, was convicted for using codeine, a restricted drug there, and sentenced to four years in jail and deportation.

He was arrested sometime in October last year when a co-worker, who was apprehended on charges of illegal drug trafficking, implicated him.

The charge of alleged use of cocaine was amended to the use of codeine after a laboratory urine test.

Sanmillan’s mother, Evelyn, said his son had been undergoing medication for his lung disease and the drugs he had been taking were medically prescribed by a medical clinic in the Philippines.

She produced documents showing that the UAE Embassy in Manila duly authenticated the prescription.

She also presented a medical certificate issued by the Subic Legend Health and Medical Center that it admitted Sanmillan last Dec. 8 for preliminary tuberculosis and acute upper respiratory infection.

Nash Yusof, the Philippine Embassy’s translator who is appearing on Sanmillan’s behalf in the Dubai Lower Court, said he was surprised by the decision, which failed to appreciate that the Filipino worker was only using a medically prescribed drug.

Yusof said the decision was strictly based on the use of a restricted drug, which was not prescribed by a licensed physician in the UAE.

He said that under Dubai laws, if the accused was proven medically to be using any prohibited medicine without prescription from an authorized and licensed doctor or clinic there, the judge will act leniently.

Guingona also directed the Philippine Embassy there to make diplomatic representations on behalf of Sanmillan who had no intention of breaking any laws in the UAE but was merely following the prescription of his doctor in the Philippines.