RP to try to save Pinoy from execution

Malacañang said yesterday it would seek a lighter penalty for a Filipino seaman sentenced to death in Malaysia but warned the drug trafficking charges against him were serious.

Nelson Tanoja Diana, 50, was found guilty of trafficking in 508.6 grams of cocaine earlier this week after being arrested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Aug. 22, 2002 while on his way from Amsterdam to Bangkok.

"We shall continue to appeal the case and seek a lesser penalty but we must bear in mind that the charges are most serious and punishable by death even under our laws," President Arroyo’s spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said.

The death penalty is mandatory for drug trafficking in Malaysia. The sentence is carried out by hanging.

The Philippine embassy in Kuala Lumpur would "exhaust all legal remedies," to help Diana, bringing the case to the Malaysian Court of Appeals, the government earlier said.

Bunye said the government had made sure Diana "has been covered by proper legal assistance, that due process have been observed and that his rights are protected under the laws of Malaysia."

"The Department of Foreign Affairs has also kept the family informed of every development along the way," he said.

The welfare of the eight million people working overseas is a politically charged issue in the Philippines, which is highly dependent on the billions of dollars the workers remit because of its fragile economy.

The execution of a Filipina maid, Flor Contemplacion, for murder in Singapore in March 1995 triggered widespread outrage against the Philippine and Singapore governments. — With AFP