Thank you, dear students, for your opinions/thoughts regarding the issue I posted.
Twelve of you said " Yes, the government must interfere." while ten said "No, the Philippines must not interfere."
On both sides are good arguments- some are anchored on the of valuing/respecting national laws while others are on the value of life.
My personal stand is: The government should not interfere. I say this, not because I do not value life. Of course we all do. But I agree with those who say that before they were caught, these OFWs already knew what they were doing. Some argue that it's poverty that drove these people to do something illegal. I see the point of that argument. BUT, it does not excuse the wrongness of their act. They have decided to go through with drug trafficking even though they knew it was wrong. At that time, they should also have been prepared to face the consequences of their actions.
We all have our strategies to survive. Some are blessed to be able to do so without having to break the law. Others are coerced to engage in activities that endanger their lives, their families or their governments. We cannot judge them using only morals as basis because truly, there are circumstances that could not be avoided. Nevertheless, it is my stand that the government should not interfere further in this case. To do so may have more ugly repercussions like China asking us to return a favor and release criminals we have captured in our territory or more OFWs having the courage and allow themselves to peddle drugs.
