Irish man awaits final appeal over Philippines drug conviction

Eanna Ó Cochláin stood for a few minutes outside the terminal at Laoag International Airport in the Philippines in July 2013 for a final cigarette before a flight to London with his Filipino wife, Jho.

Once inside, the couple checked in and moved through to security. Their bags passed through scanners before Ó Cochláin’s camera bag was searched. One official quickly claimed that he had found marijuana seeds.

“I told him it was dirt from the beach and no way was it marijuana seeds. My wife was freaking out and crowds were gathering. He ordered me to be searched again,” the 56-year-old London-based Irish nurse said, speaking by telephone from the Philippines.

A customs officer broke one of his hand-rolled cigarettes and claimed that it was proof it was marijuana. “He claimed he saw me smoking marijuana in the car park and knew it was marijuana because no smoke came from my mouth,” he said.

Distraught

Taken to the police station, Ó Cochláin refused to sign papers until he was allowed to speak with a solicitor. “My wife was distraught. The flight was to leave in 10 minutes and I ordered her to catch it because our daughter was alone in London.”

Following questioning, he was filmed by a police camera crew at the station. “I saw my cigarettes had been switched for one fat paper joint and another had been made into a skinny pencil roll-up like a joint.”

Within days, he was charged with a breach of the Philippines’ Dangerous Drugs Act, which alleged that he had been in possession of 0.38 grams of marijuana mixed with tobacco. He was convicted and sentenced to 12 years.

He was remanded on bail to live at the house of his wife’s family. He appealed his sentence, but that was turned down in August. Now he is awaiting a date for a last-chance appeal before the supreme court.

Since his arrest and conviction, the political climate in the Philippines has changed dramatically. President Rodrigo Duterte has supported the killing of anyone linked to the drugs trade. More than 2,000 people have been killed, many with no connections at all to criminality.

“I have been to hell and back and I am an innocent man,” says Ó Cochláin, whose mother, brother and sister have died while he has been unable to leave the Philippines. His mother Josephine, whom the family had tried to shield from upset, found out he had been convicted as she lay in bed at home in Cork reading a newspaper.

The two spoke by telephone before she died, though she was unable to hear much because of the quality of the line. “She told me, ‘I love you Eanna. Can you hear me?’ one last time, before she died,” he remembers.

‘Sitting duck’

He is unhappy with interventions by the Department of Foreign Affairs. “The Irish Government has condemned me by leaving me here as death squads search for anyone involved in drugs,” he says. “I’m like a sitting duck and I may not survive this. I have lost so much while I’ve been stuck here. I am in a living nightmare every day.”

Mick Barry, Anti-Austerity Alliance TD for Cork North Central, said Ó Cochláin had made credible claims that the drugs had been “planted” on him and that attempts had been made to extort money from him.

“On the advice of the Irish consul, I understand, he refused to pay. His passport has been confiscated and he cannot leave the country. His life is in danger and he is in hiding,” he said. “Mr Ó Cochláin’s life is in real danger and his family feels there has not been enough done by the Irish State and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to save and protect him. What steps are planned and will be taken?”

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan rejected the claims of inaction, saying he was "very much aware of this difficult consular case" and insisted it had been given "priority attention for some time".

In addition, he had raised it directly with Filipino officials at a meeting on the margins of the United Nations general assembly in September.