EDITORIAL - Illegal drugs from China getting worrisome

A drum that washed ashore in Sorsogon yielded plastic bags containing cocaine worth P125 million. Authorities later determined the illegal drugs had come from a Taiwanese-flagged cargo vessel that sank off the coast of Northern Samar at the height of tropical depression Agaton. According to the rescued crewmen, the ship was on its way to Chile from China.

Ahh, China. China was also the country of origin of that huge shipment of shabu worth more than P6 billion that certain people, with the seeming connivance of some personalities at the Bureau of Customs, tried to smuggle into the country only very recently. It would now appear that evidence of China's significant role in the global trade in illegal drugs keeps turning up in the Philippines.

China may be a leading global economic power of certainly legitimate means. But it also seems to be getting on swiftly as a leader of something more nefarious. And it is the latter characterization that is worrisome, both to the world in general and the Philippines in particular. Because the Philippines is a country that is being rapidly consumed by illegal drugs despite the government's aggressive response to it.

Not only is the Philippines a next-door neighbor to China and therefore a likely target market of illegal drugs from that country, if it is not yet already, it is also on sudden friendly terms with it, a relationship the Philippine government might want to keep at whatever cost in light of their conflicting claims over islets in the South China Sea.

The specter of China emerging as a global leader in the manufacture of illegal drugs places the Philippines in a very precarious position. It becomes a natural target market for the contraband. And it might not protest as aggressively as expected in light of its warming relations with China, the disruption of which could lead to renewed tensions and a reactivation of China's aggressive activities in the disputed maritime waters.

China knows it cannot be a global economic leader legitimately and illegitimately. It has to be one and not the other. China, to its credit, has dealt with its own illegal drugs problem with more resolve than most anyone would give it credit for. In fact it has one of the most stringent laws against illegal drugs. But it will not be able to be on its toes all the time. And it has the Philippines over a pickle barrel and about which the Philippines can do nothing about except say uncle.