If someone on social media offers you free travel to Hong Kong, please disregard, ignore and report it to the nearest police station. This (person) belongs to a syndicate a drug syndicate.
First, they will make you as a friend, ask you out to eat and have some fun. Then after winning your confidence they will offer you free travel to Hong Kong. But at the airport they will ask you to bring an empty suitcase for them, saying that they will need it on their return to the Philippines. You will agree because you trust the person, and you think you’re friends. You’re traveling with them, same plane, same flight. But at the airport they will ask you to wait for them at the taxi station outside, saying they just need to buy something. Then you suddenly find yourself alone. In a snap, you find yourself being arrested. The charge: drug trafficking, in particular, trafficking cocaine into Hong Kong.
When I had time to reflect on my situation I asked myself what was I doing, getting involved in drugs. I had never seen drugs in my entire life until I was arrested by customs officers on September 5, 2015 at Hong Kong International Airport.
I chose the wrong path that many others had chosen before me, and sadly many more will do the same thing. Some had succeded in their search and respected people, but so much of that money is growing out in some people’s grave/
The path to becoming a trafficker is a path to ruin and destruction. A wise person will learn from someone else’s mistake. Do not pursue the deadly path to ruin ourselves and our family’s future.
God knows how I love my family and how important they are in my life. It was for them that I left home and came here, hoping to provide them with a better future. But I failed.
The pain of separation, especially from my kids, is a heavy burden to bear. I miss them so much and I know they also miss me.
To my beloved three children who have weathered many storms, and continue to bear the absence of their mother with dignity;
To my mother and father and other family members who bear the pain and the shame, I am really sorry.
May the story of what I have gone through reach people everywhere who may find themselves in a similar trap, and to other women who may yield to the pressure of taking risks just so they could give their children a better life;
To all my friends I know, and those whom I will never know, and to all survivors who have managed to pick up their lives and go on after they had fallen, I cherish you.
One lesson I learned from being imprisoned is that it is never too dark to go back home. God always gives a second chance to those who want to change and contribute positively to society and their own lives. Being in prison is not the end. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. I will never, ever give up.
---
In this issue, we again open our pages to a Filipina who is spending time in a Hong Kong jail for drug trafficking. Since her detention and with help from crusading priest Fr. John Wotherspoon, Christine has become a passionate advocate for preventing fellow Filipino women from being used as drug mules by shadowy groups, particularly to Hong Kong. In this extract from a message posted on her behalf on Facebook, Christine cautions fellow Filipinas against going for easy money, and in the process, falling prey to drug traffickers Christine intends to use this in her upcoming appeal against her sentence, and also to support her application for reduced sentence when the Review Board goes over her case. – Ed
