Intervention sought for 83 Pinoys on death row abroad

MANILA, Philippines — A party-list congressman is seeking “immediate intervention” to save 83 overseas Filipinos on death row in other countries, mostly in Malaysia.

Kabayan Rep. Ron Salo expressed “shock” over a report of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) that the 83 are facing death abroad, calling for a review of their cases.

“It is surprising how many of our Filipinos overseas are facing death row and most of us are not aware of it,” said Salo, who chairs the House committee on overseas workers affairs.

In Thursday’s briefing before the House committee on overseas workers affairs that he chairs, the DFA reported that 56 of the 83 cases are in Malaysia alone.

The rest are in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, USA, Japan and Brunei.

“The most recent case of Mary Jane Veloso, the only one in Indonesia, wildly agitated our political landscape for quite some time. Now, how do we make of these 83 cases?” Salo asked.

“Let us never forget that these 83 Filipinos are not just statistics … they represent the lives of our kabayans (fellow countrymen) who have tried to seek better lives for their families, but have fallen on dire times. In all this, we must do all that we can to assist them and their families,” he added.

DFA Assistant Secretary Paul Cortes reported during the briefing that most of these cases are already in the “final and executory” stage and that the only possible remedy is to secure a pardon for them.

Salo appealed to the DFA and Department of Migrant Workers to immediately take the necessary interventions and representations on behalf of the 83 as he stressed that the “Philippine government, through the DFA and the newly created DMW (Department of Migrant Workers), gives priority attention to distressed overseas Filipino workers through relevant assistance programs.”