The execution of a nameless Pinoy, the execution of all!

Execution in China

Leo Echegaray was executed on February 5, 1999. His daughter Baby is now a young lady. His wife, whom he married in prison died some years after his execution. With the abolition of the Death Penalty in our country, we should be focusing on the deeper causes of crime rather than on the punishment of convicted prisoners. Our jails are still exploding from the ever growing population of offenders, which includes those suspected and accused of heinous crimes like the Maguindanao Massacre. If we still had the death penalty in our country, what could have happen to those who committed plunder like Erap? Or CGMA today? What could happen to those responsible for the Maguindanao Massacre?

Punishment is easy but finding the roots of crime and stamping these out is hard. With this recent news of another Filipino facing execution in China, more than just making appeals for a stay of execution or commutation of sentence, the government should now vigorously investigate the very reason (causes) why Filipinos become drug mules. In this regard, I find the comment of presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda rather facetious: “We recognize the decision of the judicial authorities in China. It was made based on the evidence that the Filipino was carrying 1.5 kg of heroin, and therefore, based on their law, it was subject to death penalty,” Lacierda said. Lacierda said he did not believe ties between the two countries would be affected as “this is not the first time an execution happened, we experienced it before.”

The statement from Lacierda leans more on preserving good relations between the country and China. Concern for the unnamed Filipino awaiting execution does not really come across. While we have to exhaust all means to save one Filipino life on December 8, 2011, shouldn’t the government and the people also get together and address the bigger and deeper issue that cannot be solved by either executions or diplomatic appeals?

Drug mules are only a tiny piece in the wider tapestry of the OFW phenomenon. The OFW phenomenon is only also a tiny piece in a yet bigger tapestry of poverty experienced by the majority of our people. I am afraid that if this more fundamental and bigger issue is not addressed, more will become drug mules, who will be caught, charged, convicted, sentenced and executed. Between now and December 8, I will pray hard not only for our countryman awaiting execution but for our government leaders and people, that we will begin to see how we in one way or another have contributed to a situation of despair that stems from a disturbing lack of love, respect and active concern for life, particularly of the poor, ordinary and seemingly ‘nameless’ Filipinos.

Source: Fr. Roberto P. Reyes, Philippine Online Chronicle, December 2, 2011. Fr. Roberto P. Reyes, Former President, Coalition Against Death Penalty in the Philippines

Bishops to appeal Filipino drug mule’s death sentence

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said that the bishops’ collegial body will make an appeal to the Chinese government for Beijing to commute the penalty of capital punishment it had handed down against a 35-year-old Filipino drug mule.

“We will send a letter to China to appeal for humanitarian reasons to commute the penalty to life sentence instead of death penalty,” Fr. Edwin Corros, the executive secretary of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Migrant and Itinerant People, said on Friday.

“We are all aware that capital punishment in China is really death, but we will try to appeal the case of our Filipino compatriot,” Corros added.

The priest reminded overseas Filipinos not to accept offers of drug syndicates to become drug mules in exchange for money.

Corros, meanwhile, called on the government to assist more than 200 other Filipinos who are also facing the death penalty abroad.

The Philippine government earlier asked China to show mercy to the unnamed Filipino drug mule, who was caught on September 13, 2008 at the Guilin International Airport in Guangxi smuggling about 1.5 kilograms of heroin into China from Malaysia.

His death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme People’s Court in late November.

Source: The Manila Times, December 2, 2011

December 3, 2011 Update
'Mercy mission' rejected; China says Filipino's execution to push through Dec. 8

China has refused a visit from Vice President Jejomar C. Binay to ask for mercy for a Filipino on death row, and said the man's execution will not be delayed, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Saturday.

On Sunday, all Masses in Catholic Churches will be offered for the intention of saving the convicted Filipino drug trafficker in response to Binay’s request to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). CBCP president Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma instructed all dioceses to offer Masses to ask for divine intervention for the commutation of the execution.

The 35-year-old is scheduled to be executed on December 8 after he was caught on Sept. 13, 2008 at the Guilin International Airport in Guangxi, China, trying to smuggle about 1.495 kilos (about 3 pounds, 5 ounces) of heroin into China from Malaysia.

“The Chinese government has informed the Philippine government that the verdict of the Supreme People’s Court of China is final and executory,” DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said.

China added that it will do everything to assist the family of the convicted Filipino, whose identity and origin have been kept from media by both the DFA and Office of the Vice President.

Hernandez said the DFA is making arrangements to fly relatives of the condemned Filipino to China so they would be able to see their loved one.

“We have also been informed that the Chinese side is unable to arrange the visit of Vice President Binay to China at this time,” Hernandez said.

Binay, Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFW) Concerns, had been awaiting a go-signal from Beijing to push through with the visit, which is tantamount to a last-ditch effort to at least delay the scheduled execution.

Despite this becoming a major blow to the Filipino convict’s family, the DFA expressed hope that the Vice President would still be allowed by Chinese authorities to go to Beijing.

Once there, the Binay will personally hand to Chinese President Hu Jintao a letter of appeal from President Benigno S. Aquino III requesting a commutation of the death sentence “based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds”.

Binay was in a similar situation last February when he reportedly met with three high-ranking officials in Beijing to ask for a stay of the executions of convicted Filipino drug traffickers Ramon Credo, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, and Elizabeth Batain. They were eventually executed after a brief stay.

The executions triggered widespread condemnation in the Philippines, where capital punishment was abolished in 2006.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is now hunting down the Filipino who recruited the doomed Filipino.

PDEA Director General Jose Gutierrez Jr. said that they have already identified the recruiter.

Source: Manila Bulletin, December 3, 2011

Related article:

China to Execute Filipino Drug Trafficker Dec. 8, ABC News, November 30, 2011

Comments

Who Gets Hanged in Singapore?

Singapore’s death penalty has been in the news again. Enshrined in law in 1975, a decade after the island split from Malaysia and became an independent state, the penalty can see people sentenced to hang for drug trafficking, murder or firearms offenses, among other crimes. Executions have often involved trafficking under the Misuse of Drugs Act, with offenses measured in grams. Those executed have included people from low-income backgrounds and foreign nationals who are sometimes not fluent in English, according to human rights advocates such as Amnesty International and the International Drug Policy Consortium.

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

China | Former Chinese senior banker Bai Tianhui executed for taking US$155 million in bribes

Bai is the second senior figure from Huarong to be put to death for corruption following the execution of Lai Xiaomin in 2021 China has executed a former senior banker who was found guilty of taking more than 1.1 billion yuan (US$155 million) in bribes. Bai Tianhui, the former general manager of the asset management firm China Huarong International Holdings, was executed on Tuesday after the Supreme People’s Court approved the sentence, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Tennessee executes Harold Wayne Nichols

Thirty-seven years after confessing to a series of rapes and the murder of Karen Pulley, Nichols expressed remorse in final words Strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution Thursday morning, Harold Wayne Nichols made a final statement. “To the people I’ve harmed, I’m sorry,” he said, according to prison officials and media witnesses. “To my family, know that I love you. I know where I’m going to. I’m ready to go home.”

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” “First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”

Iran | Child Bride Saved from the Gallows After Blood Money Raised Through Donations, Charities

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 9, 2025: Goli Kouhkan, a 25-year-old undocumented Baluch child bride who was scheduled to be executed within weeks, has been saved from the gallows after the diya (blood money) was raised in time. According to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency , the plaintiffs in the case of Goli Kouhkan, have agreed to forgo their right to execution as retribution. In a video, the victim’s parents are seen signing the relevant documents. Goli’s lawyer, Parand Gharahdaghi, confirmed in a social media post that the original 10 billion (approx. 100,000 euros) toman diya was reduced to 8 billion tomans (approx. 80,000 euros) and had been raised through donations and charities.

Iran carries out public hanging of "double-rapist"

Iran on Tuesday publicly executed a man after convicting him of raping two women in the northern province of Semnan. The execution was carried out in the town of Bastam after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, the judiciary's official outlet Mizan Online reported. Mizan cited the head of the provincial judiciary, Mohammad Akbari, as saying the ruling had been 'confirmed and enforced after precise review by the Supreme Court'. The provincial authority said the man had 'deceived two women and committed rape by force and coercion', adding that he used 'intimidation and threats' to instil fear of reputational harm in the victims.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog