MANILA, Philippines – The illegal drug trade has attracted a higher number of Filipino women, said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), noting the dangers of this trend to Filipino families.

Filipina violators of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act rose to 927 last year from 872 in 2010, said PDEA director-general Jose Gutierrez Jr in a statement Thursday, February 9. 

This represents a 6.3% rise in the number of female drug pushers in only a year.

“This trend is very alarming,” Gutierrez said.

“Women, based on Filipino culture and tradition, are the primary characters who are supposed to mold and keep the family together. With the increasing number of women being arrested for drug-related crimes, it will not be surprising if we wake up one morning to a generation where drug pushing is an accepted way of life,” he explained.

Vulnerable women

It is not only drug pushing that attracts women to this illegal trade.

Based on the latest PDEA data, more Filipino women have become drug couriers, comprising 63% of the 691 that have come to PDEA’s attention.

“Women are usually targeted by syndicates since they generally generate mild suspicion from authorities and the female body has more cavities possible to insert the drugs in, therefore posing less detection risk,” PDEA said on its website.

In a prominent case last year, China executed 3 Filipino drug couriers – 2 of them women, Elizabeth Batain and Sally Ordinario-Villanueva – despite appeals from the Philippine government. – Rappler.com