Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has ordered the Philippines’ top diplomat in Kuwait to block an alleged attempt to pay off the murder of a female Filipino domestic worker with P7.5 million in “blood money,” saying justice matters more.
“The P7.5 million blood money to pay off this horror is changing hands even as I tweet,” Locsin said.
Locsin’s tweet was accompanied by a photo of the remains of Jeanelyn Villavende, whose female employer was recently sentenced to death for her murder.
The foreign affairs chief said he has already directed Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Mohd. Noordin Pendosina Lomondot to stop the payment of blood money to Villavende’s family.
“[O]n our part we must match the P7.5 million offer to her surviving kin—NOW!” Locsin added.
He also ordered Lomondot to ensure that the death sentence on Villavende’s employer would be carried out.
“Lomondot must make sure the court judgment of death is carried out,” Lcosin said.
“Malacañang is on to this ignominy. There must be hell to pay if anyone on our side shows ambivalence and a lack of total commitment. This is unforgivable,” he said in another tweet.
Villavende died in a hospital in December 2019, according to Kuwaiti authorities.
Her murder prompted the Philippine government to ban the deployment of maids to Kuwait early 2020. The ban has already been lifted.
An embalming certificate from the Kuwaiti government showed that Villavende died of “acute failure of heart and respiration” as a result of shock and multiple injuries in the vascular nervous system.
But a separate autopsy conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation showed that Villavende’s brain, heart, and some internal organs were missing and that she also suffered multiple, severe traumatic injuries, including on her genitals – an indication that she was sexually abused.
“She’s dead. No one came to rescue when it mattered,” Locsin said in a separate tweet.
She’s dead. No one came to rescue when it mattered. Now it is not a matter of rescue but respect for the dead by giving her justice no matter what her surviving kin think of the worth of her agony. https://t.co/2TwIGuhvfV
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) January 26, 2021
“Now it is not a matter of rescue but respect for the dead by giving her justice no matter what her surviving kin think of the worth of her agony,” he added.