EDITORIAL - Start in our own backyard

Poppies aren’t cultivated in this country. Neither is the coca plant, from whose leaves the alkaloid in cocaine is extracted. So any heroin or cocaine brought overseas from the Philippines by Filipino drug mules were smuggled into this country. International drug rings seeking to penetrate huge markets with tough drug laws have found willing mules in the impoverished communities of the Philippines.

The growing number of these drug couriers, most of them women, should prod the government to intensify its campaign against smuggling and drug trafficking. Vice President Jejomar Binay, back in Manila after winning a reprieve for three Filipino drug mules facing death in China, called for better screening of travelers’ luggage. One of the two convicted Filipinas reportedly transported heroin concealed in a compartment of a metal briefcase. Airport authorities will need more than trained dogs to sniff out prohibited drugs.

Smugglers have also taken advantage of the country’s extensive coastline and limited naval and Coast Guard capabilities, bringing in everything from guns and drugs to vegetables and motorcycles. To effectively police these porous ports will require full support from local governments. One problem is the involvement of certain local politicians themselves in smuggling. The administration must go after these local officials, disregarding political alliances if needed.

For many years the country has been tagged as a transshipment point for international drug trafficking. Helped along by corruption and incompetence in law enforcement agencies, the country is also home to many laboratories for manufacturing shabu or poor man’s cocaine. Raids on these clandestine laboratories rarely lead to the arrest of the operators, reinforcing suspicion that they have been tipped off by police protectors. Shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride is one of the substances smuggled to other countries by Filipino drug mules.

Poverty drove many of those Filipinos now facing death overseas to become drug couriers. But they were helped along by weaknesses in the country’s fight against the drug menace. Saving Filipino drug mules starts with a determined campaign against drug trafficking in our own backyard.