OFW group condemns gov’t failure to stop Jakatia Pawa execution

A migrant rights group on Wednesday expressed strongest condemnation over the failure of the government to save the life of OFW Jakatia Pawa.

“The previous administrations are guilty of criminal neglect and the current regime is liable of acting too late to stop her execution,” Migrante International said in a statement after DFA confirmed the death of Pawa.

READ: OFW Jakatia Pawa hanged to death in Kuwait—DFA

Jakatia Pawa, a domestic helper from Zamboanga del Norte, was sentenced to death in April 2008 for allegedly killing the daughter of her employer. The verdict was upheld by the Court of Cassation in 2013.

She was executed by hanging at 10:19 a.m. on Wednesday in Kuwait (3:19 p.m. Manila time).

The group said that the government should be held accountable in Pawa’s death, as it is a result of government’s policy of not providing immediate legal assistance to OFWs.

“We believe that she is not the culprit but the victim of a sorry condition that forced her to work in a foreign land in order to provide a better future for her children. We also believe that she will not have ended up on death row had the Philippine government attended to her case sooner,” Mic Catuira, Acting Secretary General of Migrante International lamented.

According to information gathered by Migrante, the knife that was used in the crime did not have Pawa’s fingerprints on it and there were no bloodstains of the victim on Pawa’s dress or body that could link her to the killing. Throughout the whole investigation and judicial process, Pawa maintained that she was innocent.

Migrante said that the government’s failure to provide her a lawyer in the early stages of trial made an unfavorable verdict possible.

“Justice must be served, heads must roll! Nananawagan kami kay Pangulong Duterte na imbestigahan ang kaso at sibakin sa pwesto ang mga nagpabayang opisyal,” Catuira said. JE