Chinese gov’t nixes Binay trip

Vice President Jejomar Binay: Nixed. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—The timing was not convenient.

Vice President Jejomar Binay on Sunday called off a trip to China to plead for the life of a convicted Filipino woman who faced execution within the next 24 hours for drug smuggling.

In a statement, Binay said he was informed by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday that “now would not be a convenient time for me to visit there.”

Binay was scheduled to leave Sunday to deliver a letter from President Aquino to Chinese President Ji Xinping seeking commutation of the death sentence on the 35-year-old Filipino set to be executed between June 27 and July 2 after China’s Supreme Court on June 26 reaffirmed her death sentence by a lower court.

The woman has been detained for two years since her arrest at the international airport in Hangzou in January 2011 for allegedly attempting to smuggle more than six kilos of heroin. Drug trafficking is punishable by death in China.

In his statement, the Vice President said that while Aquino respected the ruling by China’s high court, the latter wanted to appeal to the Chinese leader to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.

“I am sad, however, that China has chosen to take this position regarding my visit,” Binay said. “Given this development, I am left with no option but to cancel my trip to China. I ask for prayers for our compatriot and her family.”

He reiterated that the government respected China’s laws and was not questioning its decision. He said he wanted to go to China “to personally appeal for compassion.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs has not released any details about the Filipino, a mother of two who resided in Metro Manila prior to her arrest.

In March 2011, China executed Filipino drug convicts Ramon Credo, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva and Elizabeth Batain despite appeals from the Philippine government. Binay had flown to China a month earlier then to personally plead for the Filipinos’ lives.

Unfortunate

Aquino’s deputy spokesperson, Abigail Valte, said on government-run dzRB that China’s rejection of Binay’s trip was “unfortunate.”

Valte said the government remained hopeful of a “favorable response” to Aquino’s letter pleading for the commutation of sentence, which had been sent ahead of Binay’s scheduled trip.

“I will not agree with the assumption of the question that there is no hope. At this point, we are waiting for a response given that the letter had been conveyed through the appropriate channels, I think, last Thursday. So we’re just waiting for that,” she said.

This case should serve as a lesson for the rest of the Filipinos not to engage in drug trafficking under any circumstance, Valte said.

“Whenever something like this comes up, we always appeal to our citizens to follow the laws whenever they go abroad, in other countries, and not to allow themselves to be victimized by syndicates or any other persons who may have an interest in these things,” she said.

Reprieve for cousin

The Filipino woman was held with her 27-year-old male cousin, who yielded six kilos of heroin. He was also meted out the death sentence but was granted a two-year reprieve within which he could reduce his sentence to life imprisonment if he maintained good behavior.

Recruited as a drug courier by a Nigerian national in 2007, the woman was reported to have brought illegal drugs into China 18 times between 2008 and 2011, earning $3,000 to $4,000 each time.

Manila and Beijing have been locked in a dispute over a group of islands believed to be sitting atop vast oil and gas reserves in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

They had faced off at Panatag Shoal for two months last year. Early this year, Manila brought a case against Beijing to the United Nations for arbitration. In May, Manila protested the presence of three Chinese ships near Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Reef).

In the face of China’s aggressive assertion of its claims, Philippine defense officials have disclosed a plan to allow the United States access to existing military facilities as part of its pivot to the Asia-Pacific, a program that did not sit well with China.