MANILA – Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Friday he would not allow Filipinos convicted of dealing illegal drugs in the Middle East to be pardoned or be part of a prisoner exchange deal.
In a tweet, Locsin said he specifically ordered Filipino ambassadors in the Middle East to exclude drug dealers from prisoner exchange negotiations, noting that he would let “the law abroad to destroy you.”
“I won’t allow the pardon of convicted Filipino drug dealers in the Middle East. My orders to my ambassadors there is to exclude drug dealers from prisoner exchanges. You destroy my people I will kill let the law abroad destroy you,” he said.
“Unlike in Indonesia these dealers were not fooled,” Locsin said, referring to the case of Mary Jane Veloso who was convicted of drug smuggling and is facing a death sentence in Indonesia.
He said Filipino drug dealers in the Middle East likely had connections to the local drug trade.
“I smell a local connection to the local drug trade. Sorry. No mercy,” Locsin said.
In 2010, Veloso was arrested in an Indonesian airport when authorities found 2.6 kg. of heroin in her luggage.
She was supposed to be executed via firing squad in April 2015 but was given a last-minute reprieve by Jakarta following an appeal from then-president Benigno Aquino III.
The detained OFW claimed that she was a victim of drug trafficking and illegal recruitment. (PNA)
