MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government is racing against time, but it is not losing hope of still saving 3 Filipinos about to be executed in China.
In a press conference, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos, Jr. said “we continue our efforts we have done in the past, we continue to engage the Chinese leadership” in providing leeway for the 3 Filipinos, even for a commutation of their sentences to life imprisonment.
He refused to disclose the last-minute legal and diplomatic options the government will be doing, saying this would compromise the cases.
Two of the 3 will be executed in Xiamen on February 21, while 1 will be executed in Guangdong the following day. All 3 will be executed via lethal injection.
He said they are anchoring the basis of the commutation through Chinese laws themselves.
“Yung ating mga kababayan, mga biktima din ang mga ito, although drug couriers. But even under Chinese law, there is a policy of combining severity and leniency,” he added.
He noted that the maximum penalty of death is imposed on the “organizers, financiers, and heads of syndicates.”
He said individuals who are coerced or duped into being used as drug mules, such as the cases of the 3 individuals, “should be given leniency.”
High-level intercession
This is precisely why the government continues to engage Chinese officials into hearing the side of the Filipinos.
He said officials are “disappointed, that despite the high-level intercession, we have not received any favorable response.”
He stressed, however, “we would like to assure the public that the President gave his clear and ringing instruction that we will not leave no stones unturned.”
President Aquino himself wrote to Chinese President Hu Jintao in early August, asking for reprieve for the Filipinos.
“While there’s life, there’s hope…That is why we have this period [of communicating with Chinese officials],” he said.
He noted that despite the severity of the cases involving the 3, the government never left their side.
Cases of drug couriers
“We are already okay with a life imprisonment [instead of death]. The evidence has been established,” he said.
He cited the case of 1 of the 3.
The woman was in Kuala Lumpur when she was approached and asked by a stranger to bring with her a luggage to Shenzhen. She was told by the stranger that the luggage contained office supplies.
Upon arrival in Shenzhen, however, airport officials saw 6,800 grams of heroine in her bag.
Conejos explained that under Chinese laws, the mere possession of 50 grams of heroine is already punishable by death. The other 2 supposedly carried 4,110 grams and 4,113 grams, respectively.
“Was the alibi believable?...The court said, ‘How can you accept a suitcase from a complete stranger and claim you were not carrying drugs?’,” he said.
The death row without reprieve cases are only 3 of 6 cases that was reviewed by the People’s Supreme Court in China. The other 2 have been remanded to the trial court while the other 1 is still awaiting decision.
There are 227 drug trafficking cases involving Filipinos in China.
Of this number, 72 have been meted death with a 2-year reprieve, which means that if they show good behavior, their cases can be commuted.
On the other hand, 38 were given life imprisonment, 78 with 15 years of imprisonment and 35 still with pending cases.
source: abs-cbnnews.com
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