China's SC upholds death sentence on 3 Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines - China’s Supreme Court has affirmed with finality the death sentence on three Filipinos who were convicted of drug trafficking.

Sources at the Philippine embassy in Beijing, who asked not to be named, said yesterday the three Filipinos whose identities were withheld could still escape execution if they identify the members of the drug syndicate that recruited them.

“If they’ll confess who are the operators of the syndicate and it will lead to their arrest, that’s the only thing that could save them from the death sentence,” one official said.

Sources said one Filipino also sentenced to death for drug smuggling had provided information about the syndicate but Chinese authorities said the statement was not enough.

“The information she gave is not enough. And drug trafficking is a crime against the state. It’s a criminal case. In drug trafficking cases seldom do we see intervention from the state,” another official said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said 112 overseas Filipino workers are facing the death penalty, mostly drug-related cases, in China.

The DFA said there are 76 Filipinos in China who were convicted and sentenced to death for drug trafficking as of Oct. 21, 2010.

Of the 112 death penalty cases, 16 involved OFWs who were charged with murder, murder with robbery, blasphemy and drug-related case.

The cases of 18 OFWs in Malaysia who were sentenced to death include Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking, robbery with homicide, rape with homicide and murder.

One OFW in Indonesia was sentenced to death and another Filipino who was convicted of murder is also facing the death penalty.

The Philippine embassy in Brazil is also monitoring 50 reported cases of Filipinos detained for drug trafficking.

The DFA said members of the Brazilian Federal Police arrested another Filipina at the Guarulhos International Airport last Aug. 19 after the police allegedly found five kilos of cocaine hidden in her luggage with false bottoms.

Citing a report of the Philippine embassy in Brazil, the DFA said the Filipina told police agents during the investigation that she bought the bags in the middle of a street in Sao Paolo and she intended to sell the bags when she came home to the Philippines.

The Filipino said she was not aware that the bags contained prohibited substances.

The embassy reported that from January to October of this year, 15 Filipinos were arrested in Brazil for drug trafficking, 13 of them women. 

The Philippine embassy in Chile reported that the number of Filipinos detained for drug trafficking in countries it covers is also on the rise.

Based on reports by the DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-OUMWA), 23 Filipinos were arrested in Peru in 2010, 21 of them women. There are now 43 Filipinos detained for drug-related offenses in the countries covered by the embassy, namely Chile, Peru and Ecuador.

DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. said there are already 205 drug trafficking cases, including those who have been convicted and sentenced to death.

Some of the cases are under appeal at the supreme courts of various countries, including cases pending at the People’s Supreme Court in Beijing.

Conejos earlier said the decision on the cases of two Filipinos sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling should not be linked to the backlash against the Philippines for the death of eight Hong Kong tourists in a hostage taking in Manila last August.

He said the decision on the two Filipinos was handed down long before the hostage crisis in Manila.

“We recognize the sovereignty of China. We respect the laws of China but we appeal to them for humanitarian reasons that they be saved,” Conejos said.

Under Chinese laws, the trafficking of 50 grams or more is punishable by 15 years in prison or death.

Conejos said drug syndicates usually pay drug mules or couriers fees ranging from $3,000 to $4,000.

He said there are now 302 drug-related cases in Asia involving Filipinos, mostly female workers who were lured to act as mules by international syndicates.

A majority of the cases are in China (205), Hong Kong (26) and Malaysia (17) involving more females than males at 221 cases.

The DFA reiterated the warning to Filipinos traveling overseas from getting involved in drug trafficking. 

China’s top diplomat in the country said the special relations between China and the Philippines should not be interpreted that the Chinese government is going slow on Filipinos sentenced to death for drug trafficking, as Beijing emphasized “equality before the law.”

Chinese Ambassador Liu Jianchao said there is no preferential treatment to people sentenced to death, noting that China is very careful in meting out the death sentence to a Chinese or foreign national that must be rectified by the Supreme Court.

The two-year reprieve, he said, is an indication that China is very careful with the death sentence.

He cited the British national convicted of drug smuggling in China and whose death sentence was affirmed by the People’s Supreme Court, leading to his execution by lethal injection on Dec. 29, 2009.

The Chinese government informs the relatives and the embassy of the national who will be executed.

Liu stressed that drug trafficking is a crime that upsets and offends Chinese people.

He said some drug traffickers are really taking advantage of Chinese law because they use even pregnant women, thinking they would not be given the death sentence. 

Meanwhile, a Saudi Arabia lower court sentenced a 45-year-old Filipina domestic helper to death by stoning after she was found guilty of adultery, DFA sources said.

Sources said the lower court handed down the decision last month after the Filipina allegedly confessed having an “illicit relationship” with a Pakistani man who was also charged before the court.

They said the stoning sentence heightened concern of the Philippine embassy in Riyadh and the DFA and the decision will be appealed.

Stoning to death is practiced as a punishment for adultery in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.

Stoning is a form of capital punishment where a group of people throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject.

Human rights groups have expressed grave concern about execution by public stoning and had called on heads of state and government to intervene to suspend the sentence.