Binay seeks postponement on execution of Filipino drug trafficker in China

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—China has yet to give Vice President Jejomar Binay the go-ahead for his proposed trip to Beijing, where he will try to seek a postponement for “humanitarian reasons” of the Dec. 8 execution of a Filipino drug trafficker.

In a statement, Binay on Friday said “should Beijing agree to my visit, I will be personally carrying the original letter of (President Aquino)” to his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao.

When contacted, Raul Hernandez, spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs, told the Inquirer they were “still working” on Binay’s trip to the Chinese capital.

According to Binay, “What was given to (Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao) on Wednesday was a copy of the letter.”

“We are telling China that our government recognizes the primacy of the law of China and the strong relationship between our two countries,” Binay said in Filipino. “Like China, the Philippines stands against illegal drugs. We will ask for postponement (of the execution) on humanitarian grounds.”

Binay believed the Filipino convict was “not the head or part of any criminal group.”

“We believe that criminal groups are exploiting the poverty of our people and, because of that and in line with Chinese law, life imprisonment should be the penalty,” Binay said.

Citing news reports, Binay noted “Beijing will not commute the death penalty for our kababayan.”

“As of this time, we have not received an official communication from the Chinese foreign ministry,” he said.

But Binay said, “we should not lose hope.”

“Let us intensify our prayers. Dec. 8 is the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Let us pray that we will be blessed with a miracle on that day,” he also said.

According to Binay, the Epsicopal Commission for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People is set to appeal for a commutation of the sentence.

“I am also appealing to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to offer prayers for our good kababayan this Sunday, and to ask for God’s help in securing the commutation,” he added.

On Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in Makati City and the DFA said the Supreme People’s Court of China’s decision affirming the drug trafficking conviction and the death sentence was “final.”

Ethan Sun Yi, deputy chief of the embassy’s political section and mission spokesperson, on Thursday told the Inquirer that “as far as I know, it is (final).”

Hernandez said the same thing. But he said, “Our government is appealing that the death penalty be commuted to life imprisonment for humanitarian reasons.”

On Wednesday, he said the execution of the 35-year-old man, whom he did not identify, had been scheduled for Dec. 8, even as President Aquino appealed to Hu to commute the death sentence to life in prison.

The Filipino “should be in Guangxi (a province in southern China) where he was arrested in 2008,” according to Sun.