Saving four OFWs on death row is priority of new DFA exec

Saving four OFWs on death row is priority of new DFA exec
Jan 31, 2006
Updated 07:18pm (Mla time)
Nikko Dizon
Inquirer

SAVING four Filipino workers sentenced to death overseas is now the primary concern of the newly-appointed Foreign Affairs undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs.

“There are only two avenues left for the Philippine government to save them. One is by making representations for the grant of executive clemency and the other is to offer blood money to the victim’s families to completely exonerate them (OFWs),” Esteban Conejos Jr. said in his first media briefing at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.

Conejos said that of the four OFWs, three are women who have been convicted of killing their employers in Saudi Arabia. Two are serving time in Riyadh, while one is in Jeddah.

The male OFW was meted the death penalty in Sabah for drug trafficking, Conejos said.

Meanwhile, Cornejo said the DFA has recently hired two Kuwaiti lawyers, who are experts in the appellate level, to represent OFW Marilou Ranario who has been sentenced to death by hanging for killing her Kuwaiti employer last year.

Aside from these cases, Conejos said his office would be focusing on assisting 32 other OFWs in different countries who are facing offenses punishable by death.