US envoy: China must take stronger action vs drugs

United States Ambassador Sung Kim yesterday underscored China’s responsibility to take stronger law enforcement actions to stop the shipment to the Philippines of dangerous items used in methamphetamine (shabu) production.

“I think that would be the right thing to do,” he told reporters during a roundtable discussion at the US embassy.

Kim was asked to comment on the drug problem in the country which Sen. Richard Gordon said begins and ends with China, involving syndicates that export narcotics to the Philippines.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee leading an inquiry into a P6.4-billion shipment of shabu from China, said China should stop smuggling drugs into the Philippines if Beijing is a true friend of Manila.

“I wouldn’t want to comment on whether China is a true friend of the Philippines or not. But I will note that my understanding is that most of the precursors that go into shabu come from China,” Kim said.

Gordon wants China to take action against the transport of illegal drugs from its mainland to the Philippines, a longtime racket known to involve its citizens.

Kim said the US has concerns about the human rights situation in the Philippines that have been well-documented in a US human rights report.

Even so, he said he would not suggest that those concerns have serious negative effect on the overall relationship between the Philippines and the US because the relationship has so many aspects important to both countries.