Charges readied vs recruiter of executed Filipina drug mule

The Department of Justice on Friday recommended the filing of charges of illegal recruitment in large scale and drug trafficking against a woman said to be responsible for recruiting convicted drug courier Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, who was executed in China last March.

In an eight-page resolution dated May 31 but released only yesterday, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Lilian Doris Alejo found probable cause in the complaints against Tita Cacayan filed by the National Bureau of Investigation on behalf of Villanueva’s brother Jayson Ordinario, their mother Basilisa and three others.

“In as much as respondent Cacayan procured/referred/promised overseas employment to the aforementioned complainants, despite the fact that she is not licensed to do so, and purchased plane tickets for them, there is is probable cause to hold her liable violation of Section 6 of Republic Act No. 8042 (Migrant Workers Act of 1995) as amended. And since the complainants are more than three persons, the offense is deemed to have committed in large scale.”

The Ordinarios and the other complainants Ronnie Abuyan, Melita Salazar-Sibuyan and Jennifer Leano—all relatives and/or neighbors in Isabela—claimed that Cacayan recruited or tried to recruit them to be drug couriers to China, South America and Malaysia from 2008 to 2010.

Abuyan said that in March 2010, she was able to smuggle to China several grams of cocaine in the form of drug capsules that she was made to swallow.

“The act of respondent Cacayan in givin g 43 capsules containing class-A cocaine to [one of the complainants] for the latter to swallow and later transport out of the country constitutes a violation of Section 5 of RA 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002),” Alejo said in her resolution.

The preliminary investigation revealed that Cacayan purchased the plane tickets for her “recruits” from the Winluck Travel and Tours, in Sta, Cruz, Manila. Its owner, Melita Comedes confirmed the plane ticket purchases made by Cacayan.

Ordinario was sent to China in December 2008 as a mobile phone dealer. Cacayan gave her US$500 in pocket money and a suitcase. She was arrested at the Xiamen Airport after authorities found four kilos of heroin hidden in her suitcase.

Villanueva and two other Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking, Elizabeth Batain and Ramon Credo, were executed by lethal injection on March 30 by Chinese authorities.

The prosecutor overruled Cacayan’s denial that the complainants were not overseas Filipino workers so she can’t be charged with illegal recruitment.

Alejo said the crime of illegal recruitment under RA 8042 covers the mere act of offering or promising overseas employment that is done in violation of the country’s labor laws.