{"id":1374,"date":"2011-07-03T06:48:29","date_gmt":"2011-07-02T20:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=1374"},"modified":"2011-07-03T06:48:29","modified_gmt":"2011-07-02T20:48:29","slug":"dept-of-justice-advisory-on-drug-mules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=1374","title":{"rendered":"Dept. of Justice advisory on drug mules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima has issued an advisory opinion on illegal drug couriers which seeks to explain to the public the issues and concerns about Filipinos arrested, detained, and convicted in foreign countries for transporting illegal drugs. The advisory outlined ten (10) points for the consideration of the Filipino public:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>?\tThe traveler carries drugs at personal risk.<br \/>\n?\tThe traveler must take full responsibility of his or her<br \/>\n        actions.<br \/>\n?\tKnowledge and intent are not a requirement for drug<br \/>\n        trafficking.<br \/>\n?\tThe traveler must be vigilant of the modus operandi of<br \/>\n        drug courier syndicates.<br \/>\n?\tIn the unfortunate event of arrest or detention for drug<br \/>\n        trafficking, the traveler must have presence of mind<br \/>\n        and not resist arrest.<br \/>\n?\tIn the unfortunate event of arrest or detention for drug<br \/>\n        trafficking, the traveler should assert legal rights,<br \/>\n        inquire about legal remedies, and request consular<br \/>\n        assistance from the Philippine Embassy or Consulate.<br \/>\n?\tThe presumption of innocence will always apply.<br \/>\n?\tThe laws of the country of arrest will apply.<br \/>\n?\tIf sentenced, the Philippine Government can be of<br \/>\n        limited assistance.<br \/>\n?\t\u201cBlood money\u201d (reparational payment demanded in<br \/>\n        some cultures of a person guilty of a very grave crime)<br \/>\n        cannot be paid to erase the liability of a person<br \/>\n        convicted of a crime involving illegal drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Secretary de Lima said that it is not a valid legal defence that a carrier of a package did not know that it contains illegal drugs or that there was no intention to commit a crime. Therefore, Filipino travellers are advised to be very cautious when approached by strangers who make a request to carry a package for them.<\/p>\n<p>Secretary de Lima also stated that the Philippine Government can only offer limited assistance to persons arrested for carrying or possessing illegal drugs. The laws of the country of arrest will apply to the traveller, and the Philippine Government cannot interfere with the internal affairs of other countries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima has issued an advisory opinion on illegal drug couriers which seeks to explain to the public the issues and concerns about Filipinos arrested, detained, and convicted in foreign countries for transporting illegal drugs. The advisory outlined ten (10) points for the consideration of the Filipino public: ? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}