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MANILA, Philippines?The daughter of Sally Villanueva was not able to speak to her mother before she was executed Wednesday in China.
But Princess Mae Joy Villanueva, 12, said she had been assured by her grandparents, Basilisa and Geronimo Ordinario, that they would bring home a recording of their last conversation with her mother.
She told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in Jones town, Isabela province, that the voice recording would make up for the missed chance for her and her 10-year-old brother Lexbert to give their mother a farewell hug.
Princess, who will graduate as salutatorian at the Tubar Elementary School on April 9, said she would sing Bryan Adams? ?Heaven? at the commencement ceremony in honor of her mother.
She said she was learning to come to terms with what had happened: ?We are slowly accepting her fate although it is painful. That is why we did not go to China,? she said.
Princess said she hoped her mother was able to eat her favorite pork dish, which the family had prepared.
She said she had asked her grandparents to make sure her mother ate well. (According to TV reports from Xiamen, prison authorities forbade Sally?s parents from bringing in her favorite adobo dish, along with four packs of pork rind.)
?What happened to my mother has opened my eyes. I have to defend the poor and the oppressed,? Princess said.
Gainful employment
In Malacañang, President Benigno Aquino III Wednesday night sought understanding from the public and promised to generate more ?gainful employment? in order to prevent Filipinos from being victimized by drug traffickers and crooked recruiters.
In a statement he issued hours after the execution of Villanueva, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain in China, the President offered his ?deepest sympathies to the families that they left behind? and said they would be provided livelihood assistance.
He reiterated that his administration had pleaded for a commutation of the death sentences but that China refused, and ?we must respect their legal processes.?
?I ask the public not to allow this situation to affect our historic friendship with the Chinese people,? he said.
Mr. Aquino said that while the three were convicted of drug trafficking, ?they can also be considered victims of unscrupulous recruiters and drug traffickers, and victims of a society that could not provide enough gainful employment in their home country.?
He said that since he came to power last July, his administration had been going after drug syndicates. In the first quarter of 2011, he said, the National Capital Region Police Office had seized P1.4 billion worth of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride), shut down two shabu laboratories, and arrested 23 foreign nationals involved in the drug trade.
He also said Villanueva?s recruiter had been identified and charged before the Department of Justice.
The President acknowledged that ?all over the world, particularly in the Middle East, there are other Filipinos languishing in jails.?
?Our ultimate goal is to create a situation where people are not pressured to resort to these things, where they can find enough gainful employment in the Philippines. Let us remain steadfast and focused on this goal, for it is the ultimate means to bringing a better life for all,? he said.
Slap on the face
But the militant Migrante International said the execution of the three Filipinos in China should serve as ?a potent slap on the face? of the Philippine government for it to stop its labor export policy and prod it to build a self-reliant economy.
?Unfortunately, this crisis of forced migration continues to be aggravated by the Philippine government?s promotion and advancement of a labor export policy that has become more systematic and sophisticated over the decades,? Migrante said in a statement.
It noted that there were still more than 70 Filipinos on death row in China for drug offenses and that more than 7,000 others were in jails across the globe.
?These last few months have been grueling times for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families?the executions in China, civil wars and wars of aggression in Libya and looming elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, the earthquake in New Zealand, and most recently, the multiple disasters that hit Japan,? Migrante said.
?Combined with the continuing onslaught of a global economic crisis that is translated into unending spates of price hikes and the Aquino administration?s intensification of privatization, liberalization and deregulation policies in favor of foreign interests, these are arguably the worst of times for our 15 million OFWs and their families,? it said.
?Pa-pogi? approach
The militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) described as ?shallow? Mr. Aquino?s order to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to make sure that no Filipinos would again be used as drug mules by international gangs.
?It is precisely this ?pa-pogi? and business-as-usual approach of the government to the country?s problems that is causing Filipinos to find work abroad and to be recruited by international crime syndicates,? KMU chair Elmer Labog said.
?Mr. President, the cause is chronic poverty, hunger, unemployment, extremely low wages and your government?s anti-people policies?which you cannot solve by simply mobilizing [these agencies] to issue warnings to would-be migrant Filipinos,? Labog said.
But in his own statement, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said he had ordered local government units (LGUs) to be on guard against human trafficking syndicates in their respective jurisdictions.
?We need the support of the [LGUs] in our campaign against illegal recruitment because a number of our citizens are still being victimized by human traffickers,? he said.
Robredo said he had issued a separate directive to Philippine National Police Director General Raul Bacalzo to intensify operations against human trafficking syndicates.
He told Bacalzo that he expected ?periodic reports on your accomplishments? in the matter.
Miserable system
Fr. Edwin Corros, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines? Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People, said Batain, Credo and Villanueva would have had a different fate if social conditions in the country were better.
?We are not angry with China but with the system and the structure that makes our living conditions miserable, and the victims are always the poor,? he said.
Corros officiated at a Mass shortly before Wednesday?s scheduled executions in China.
After the Mass held at the CBCP office in Intramuros, Manila, the priest fought back tears when he learned from reporters that the executions had been carried out.
?We only have ourselves to blame... It?s us, it?s our problem,? he said.
Corros said the government should seriously study what it could do to prevent more executions of Filipinos in China. ?We hope that these three will be the last,? he said.
Cotabato Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo also said the government could do ?many things? to help other Filipinos on death row in China.
?We are making an appeal to President Aquino to exert all efforts, to explore all possibilities on how to help them,? Bagaforo said over the Church-run Radio Veritas.
Isabela Bishop Martin Jumoad also appealed to government officials to address the perpetual problem of poverty which, he said, had driven millions of Filipinos to find better-paying but dangerous jobs abroad.
Victimized twice
Commission on Human Rights Chair Loretta Rosales called on China to rethink its adherence to the death penalty, saying such a form of punishment had no place in the judicial system.
Rosales also expressed grief over the execution of the three Filipino drug mules.
?It?s very sad and lamentable because they were victimized twice over?first by drug trafficking syndicates, then by the inflexibilities of the Chinese criminal justice system,? Rosales said in a statement. Reports from Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon; Christine O. Avendaño, Marlon Ramos, Jocelyn R. Uy, Philip C. Tubeza and Leila B. Salaverria in Manila
