THE SAD PLIGHT: MAID IN THE PHILIPPINES

The Filipina women are known to be one of the most caring and loving creatures in the world. I am for one, a proud Filipina and yes... we are a very caring kind but not to the extent of carrying cocaine and heroin either in their luggage or swallowed or encased please! 

For decades, Philippines' top export commodity is "Maid in the Philippines" with millions of women from my country hired abroad as domestic workers. Now, my heart bleeds as these Filipinas are now known as "Mules in the Philippines". It saddens me that with the global recession and opportunities failing to be materialized here at home, a lot of my kind have resorted to something far more dangerous than being domestic workers to smuggling drugs.


Over the years, Philippines witnessed a dramatic increase in the numbers of our men and women... especially our poor women being used as drug mules. According to top officials in the country, there appears to be a specific targeting of our Filipina women by international drug syndicates often taking advantage of those who are in desperate situations to go back home to their families. Poverty... the need to pay back their debts, to buy clothes, medicine, food, provide schooling for their children drives these women to deep danger. 

 
I believe that the only answer is awareness. If our women were informed and helped in the first place, if there was more equality then the problem would be much smaller. The Philippine Government should launch a massive awareness to fight this social illness that hounds our people and our country. With the help of our Philippines embassies offshore, the drug law enforcement agencies, the bloggers, the media and civil society groups, we can make this stop. Poor awareness pushes Filipinas to do these dangerous risks. 

Awareness is the only way I can think of. I can't imagine how we will be able to directly stop having our women used as drug mules because then, we need to stop the demand and supply of the drugs. This brings me to ask... would the Aquino government help? These international drug dealers are ruthless, fearless and very rich..they corrupt the governments, police and other law enforcement agencies. And so it is a sad plight for drug mules when caught. A drug mule is a drug mule...whichever gender for it results to same sentences for drug smuggling...  same offense... same punishment offshore.

 
Drug trafficking will always be there but if we help educate or making our women aware about taking these risks, it can be stopped. These Filipina women are respected and loved in our country... I cannot imagine how they and their families endure this sad and horrifying experience of languishing jail time and severe punishments like death in foreign prisons. I can't imagine how their own children feels about these...

I don't believe that these women, who are already being exploited, should be jailed or punished in any way but... there are laws. However, I feel we should treat these women with a lot more compassion. Let's help bring back our women to their own rightly pedestals... these care-giving queens are no drug mules... let's help bring them home to our land and to their children... safe and happy.

Photos by: Jonel M. Candelaria (Big thanks for providing them specifically for my blog!)

THE SEARCH FOR ELLAH JOY PIQUE'S KILLERS

An abhorrent crime was committed in Cebu City, Philippines to an innocent six years old Filipina girl, Ellah Joy Pique last Tuesday, February 8, 2011 and my heart bleeds for her as it takes so long for this country to give justice to victims. 

Ellah Joy was about to go home at around 4pm of February 8, following 10 year old twins after school when a black SUV (Pajero with plate number 679) stopped in front of them. One of the twins saw the car's door opened with a Caucasian man on the driver's seat on board and a Filipina woman beside him on who latter asked Ellah her mother's name and offered to drive her home. Ellah boarded the car, sat on the woman's lap, smiled and waved at her friends goodbye. That was the last time her friends saw Ellah alive.

At 7:55am Thursday, February 10, Ellah's poor naked and lifeless body was found at the foot of a cliff along the national road in Baranggay Sayaw, Barili more than 40 kilometers away from home. She was wrapped in two cream-colored bedsheets and blankets with three rocks and gray cable wires snaked around her small frame.


Ellah Joy was the youngest child and only daughter of the Pique family.

The 1st grader's belongings were discovered in a baranggay next to Sayaw at around 9am that day. These included a pink checkered skirt, pink shorts, a sleeveless white blouse, her violet slippers, a lunch box and her school bag filled with notebooks. Two Fifty Pesos bills were also found which surprised Ellah's father who claimed he did not give her money nor a single peso since Ellah goes home to eat her lunch. The said money was used to trick or lure the Ellah to go with them.

Now, what kind of an animal could look into the eyes of an innocent child, purposefully hurt her, kill her and toss her lifeless body away like garbage?   Who are these sick people who prey on our children... our national treasures?  

Hereunder is a cartographic sketch of the Caucasian man and his Filipina companion released by the Cebu City crime investigators...

Ellah's autopsy findings showed that her hymen is intact but she had contusions and bruises on her arms and mouth. The medico legal officer Dr. Nestor Sator reported that Ellah Joy Pique's lower lip was also lacerated, a fracture on her skull and a wound on her back all indicating that the victim was struck by a hard object. The impact was said to have caused her brain to bleed.


As we pray for Ellah Joy's peace, please help find her killers... let's help her bring justice to the crime committed against her innocent life who was obviously meant to be sexually abused or for child trafficking purposes but that she put up a fight for her own life. 

As for our other children... our national treasures... please help protect them from child predators! Be supportive of THE CHILD-WISE TOURISM! Please read that blog and know what to do when you sense that something bad is bound to happen to children.

May our Filipino children be further spared from child killers and child predators.  


Updated News Source