Binay to continue seeking reprieve of OFWs on death row

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay vowed yesterday to continue seeking reprieve of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) facing death penalties in other countries.

Binay, also the presidential adviser on OFW concerns, said no time or resource of the State is ever wasted on appealing for a reprieve or a lighter sentence for OFWs who are meted the death penalty.

“Our people would never understand if the government did nothing to help such a poor convict, even when help no longer seemed possible,” Binay said during the closing ceremony of the 4th Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Accredited National Convention of Public Attorneys.

“We would be so much less of a government if we simply threw up our hands in the air, and said there is nothing more to be done,” he said.

Binay cited statistics of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) which showed that 576 OFWs are facing death penalties in various countries.

He went to China last February on orders of President Aquino to appeal for the stay in the execution of three Filipino drug mules.

The three were eventually executed.

Last week, Binay hand carried to the Chinese embassy a personal letter from President Aquino to President Hu Jintao asking for clemency for another Filipino, citing humanitarian reasons.

He had earlier requested another visit to Beijing to deliver President Aquino’s letter, but his request was denied.

“There was never any question of our not respecting the laws or court decisions of China, or of our relations being adversely affected by China carrying out its death sentence,” Binay said.

“My effort to seek a stay of execution and a possible commutation of sentence from death to life imprisonment was, and always had been, consistent with our Christian culture and Constitution,” Binay added.

He said the Philippine Constitution has already abolished capital punishment while the catechism of the Catholic Church, while not excluding the death penalty in cases of extreme gravity, urges public authority to use bloodless means of protecting public order and the safety of persons, in conformity with human dignity.

“Our service to the law and to the poor deserves our very best effort, and service to the one should be interchangeable with service to the other. There should be no distinction. When you serve the law, you should simultaneously serve the poor. And there should be no limit to what you should be prepared to do to perform this service,” Binay said.

The Vice President likewise said he is happy to hear that the Public Attorney’s Office has been attracting young and idealistic lawyers into its fold and credited the present leadership and reputation of PAO for this development.