Groups bat for pro-active approach to helping OFWs on death row

MANILA, Philippines—The ordeal of Filipinos on death row in China and other parts of the world “should be a serious government concern even before they are scheduled for execution,” critics of the Aquino administration said.

Militant and Filipino migrant workers’ groups have observed that “by the time our nationals reach death row, more often than not, it is already too late and there’s little that the Philippine government can do.”

“Only when drug-related crimes and other cases involving Pinoys have attained significant media publicity and public protests would the Department of Foreign Affairs and its embassies and consulates abroad act. By then, it would have been too late,” noted Terry Ridon, national chairman of the League of Filipino Students.

Ridon called this the “policy backdrop by which the “China 3″—Filipino drug mules Ramon Credo, Sally Villanueva and Elizabeth Batain—will meet their deaths on March 30 in China.

“Systematic government neglect of our OFWs is at the very core of this crisis,” Ridon emphasized.

Two days before the execution of the three Filipinos, “the Aquino administration should race against time and do everything in its power to save the lives of the China 3,” he added.

Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said “amid reports of a number of Filipinos on death row in various countries, the government should make clear its plans on how to assist them and their families.”

Those on death row “should be a serious government concern even before they are scheduled for execution,” Reyes added.

ACT party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio wondered: “Did the government provide them with sufficient assistance during their trial? Were their rights respected and protected?”

Like Ridon, John Leonard Monterona, regional coordinator of the Riyadh-based OFW group Migrante-Middle East, observed that in many criminal cases involving Philippine nationals, the government would provide serious legal assistance “only when the cases have attained finality.”

“In such situations, the cases usually end up in convictions to the utter prejudice of our OFWs,” said Ridon.

The DFA, meanwhile, insists the government “has made sustained and exhaustive representations with the Chinese government at all levels to seek mitigated sentences for all Filipinos on death penalty.”

In a statement, the foreign office said the state “provided (Credo, Villanueva and Batain) all possible legal and consular assistance.”

“The government ensured that their legal rights were respected and observed and their welfare protected from the time of their arrests and throughout the judicial process and even up to this very day,” it noted.

Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary J. Eduardo Malaya, also DFA spokesman, recalled that in January 2010, the agency made representations on the three drug mules’ behalf with Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao.

Last August, then DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo wrote Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to likewise request the official’s “kind intercession on humanitarian grounds.”

President Aquino sent Hu Jintao, his Chinese counterpart, a letter to “convey the government’s hope for a favorable outcome of the review of the Filipinos’ cases by the Supreme People’s Court.”

The Philippine consulates in Xiamen and Guangzhou “made constant jail visitations and extended full consular assistance to the three Filipinos and to their families for scheduled visits,” according to Malaya.

Between January 2009 and January 2011, consulate officials visited Credo and Villanueva at least eight times.

The same officials visited Batain five times between August 2008 and October 2010.

The Philippine Embassy in Beijing and the consulates also “ensured that all three Filipinos were represented by competent legal counsels aided by translators during the trial of their cases.

Consulate officials “strictly monitored their cases and attended their court hearings and had close coordination with the counsels of the three Filipinos,” Malaya added.

On Sunday, Kabataan party-list Representative Raymond Palatino urged Malacañang and the DFA “to tell all: How many Filipinos are on death row worldwide? How many others are detained for various crimes?”

Monterona urged the government to create an inter-agency task force tasked to “save OFWs and other Philippine nationals on death row worldwide.”

“The huge number of OFWs on death row warrants the creation of the task force, Monterona said as he also called for an “intensified campaign aimed at preventing our migrant workers from being victimized by international drug syndicates.”

Last Wednesday, the DFA announced that the executions of Credo, Villanueva and Batain would take place on March 30.

Credo and Villanueva will be executed in Xiamen and Batain in Shenzhen.

The three were arrested separately in 2008 for smuggling four to six kilograms of heroin to China.

In China, smuggling of 50 grams or more of heroin or equivalent drugs is punishable with the death penalty.

Credo, Villanueva and Batain were originally scheduled for execution last February, but Vice President Jejomar Binay was able to negotiate a stay after he traveled to Beijing on the President’s behalf.

The DFA’s announcement had an air of finality to it, but Binay believes that while the executions have not been carried out, “there is still hope.”

Binay’s office on Friday released the text of a letter that the Vice President had reportedly written the Chinese president appealing for clemency.

Binay cited a new provision on a Chinese law, which provides for severe penalties for masterminds in crimes like drug trafficking and leniency for those playing minor roles.

Earlier, 75 other Filipinos who were also meted the death penalty without reprieve were given two-year reprieves by the Supreme People’s Court of China.

Under Chinese law, the original verdict may be commuted to life imprisonment if a prisoner displays good behavior while in jail.