A HONG KONG woman was jailed for life in the Philippines yesterday for drug smuggling, while a second woman from the territory was acquitted as an unwitting courier.
A tearful Candy Tang Wai-lan, 30, who was found guilty of transporting 5.5 kilograms of methamphethamine hydrochloride, or 'ice', into the country in 1991, said she would lodge an appeal.
'It's a miracle,' an overjoyed Elaine Chung Wai-chi, 27, said after Regional Trial Court Judge Vicente Yap ordered her immediate release 'without further delay after having been unjustly incarcerated for the last three years'.
Tang, who sold Hong Kong-made clothes to Manila boutiques, and Ms Chung, employed by a Hong Kong polling firm, were arrested at Manila airport on November 28, 1991.
The court was told that airport officials found the drugs hidden in the false bottoms of suitcases which the two women presented to customs officers shortly after they arrived on a commercial flight from Hong Kong.
The court accepted Ms Chung's defence that she only met Tang on the plane and the latter asked her to help her carry the luggage through customs.
The court took note that Ms Chung's plane ticket indicated that she was not carrying any luggage.
