A look back on narcotics cases of Pinoy celebs, drug couriers

The case of the Filipino drug convict who is scheduled to be executed in China on Thursday is the latest in a growing list of controversial cases of Filipinos, including celebrities, who were caught carrying drugs abroad. On Thursday, the death sentence of a 35-year-old Filipino was promulgated at the Guilin Municipal Intermediate People’s Court in China. Consul General Raly Tejada told the Office of the Vice President that the execution will push through. In the past, some personalities made headlines for getting involved in drug-related cases overseas, the latest of which was former Ilocos Sur Rep. Ronald Singson, who was arrested in Hong Kong last year for alleged drug trafficking.   Singson, son of Ilocos Sur governor Luis “Chavit” Singson, was charged with trafficking in dangerous drugs in July 2010 for carrying 26.1 grams of cocaine and two tablets of Valium, a prescription anti-depressant used mainly for treating anxiety.    In the late 1990s, showbiz beauties Anjanette Abayari and Alma Concepcion were also arrested more than a year apart at the Agana Airport in Guam for carrying shabu.    Concepcion, a former beauty queen, reportedly pleaded guilty to carrying .08 grams of shabu on July 1998.   Abayari was arrested on October 1999 after security officers found “a broken plastic pipe and crystalline substance in her make-up bag.”   The government, then under former President Joseph Estrada, said they “cannot really help her” because Abayari is a US citizen.   Estrada was also quoted in reports saying: “I believe we must not allow her to enter the country because she might influence her fellow actors and actresses.”  Execution of three Filipinos In March this year, three Filipinos who were convicted of drug trafficking in China were executed.  Vice President Jejomar Binay, the presidential adviser for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) affairs, announced on GMA News TV on March 30, "Malungkot na araw... Patay na po 'yung tatlong kababayan natin." Two of the convicted Filipinos, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva and Ramon Credo, were subjected to lethal injections in Xiamen. The third Filipino, Elizabeth Batain, was executed in Shenzhen. The Supreme People’s Court of China affirmed the death sentences on the three convicts on February 11.   Credo, 42; Batain, 38; and Villanueva, 32, were originally scheduled to be executed on February 20 and 21 this year. The executions were put on hold after the humanitarian visit to Beijing of Binay on February 18, upon orders from President Benigno Aquino III. Ordinario-Villanueva was convicted for smuggling 4,110 grams of heroin on Dec. 24, 2008 into Xiamen. Credo was convicted for smuggling 4,113 grams of heroin on Dec. 28, 2008 in the same city. Batain, meanwhile, was convicted for smuggling 6,800 grams of heroin on May 24, 2008, in Shenzhen. Under the Chinese criminal code, smuggling of 50 grams of heroin or any narcotic drug into China is punishable by death. - with Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/VVP/YA, GMA News