Migrante sets protest action vs govt over Bidoya beheading

MANILA, Philippines — An alliance of overseas Filipino workers' organization based in the Middle East on Wednesday chided the government for acting “too late with too little effort" to save Jenifer Bidova, an OFW who was executed in Jeddah Tuesday for killing a Saudi national guard.

In a statement, Migrante-ME regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said the group’s members in Saudi Arabia and other Mideastern countries have set October 17 a ‘Black’ Friday by wearing black T-shirts and ribbon to demonstrate their disgust against the “criminally negligible (sic) Arroyo regime."

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced on Tuesday that Bidoya, also known as Venancio Ladion, was executed in the western city of Jeddah Conejos despite pleas for mercy by the Philippine government.

Undersecretary Esteban Conejos, head of the DFA’s office of migrant workers affairs, has said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wrote twice to King Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz Al-Saud — on December 6, 2007 and on July 7, 2008 — requesting clemency for Bidoya.

But the victim's family was adamant in refusing to forgive Bidoya and insisted on the imposition of death penalty, Conejos said.

He explained that since Bidoya’s crime was murder, which results in a public and private liability under Shariah law, while the King of Saudi Arabia can forgive the public rights aspect of the case, he cannot extend clemency if the victim’s family objects.

Migrante-ME said it was not convinced.

Monterona said the efforts exerted by the DFA and the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah was not just too late but also not enough to save Bidoya from execution as they only recommended to Mrs. Arroyo to send letters to the Saudi King asking for clemency.

“The DFA and Philippine Consulate in Jeddah should have reached out to the victim's family by asking the help and assistance of known Muslim leaders with a hope that the victim's family would be convinced to forgive Bidoya and accept the offered ‘blood money,’" he said.

“It appears that the Arroyo administration was too confident that it only considers sending letters to the Saudi King asking for clemency with out giving attention to other possible means to reach out the victim's family for forgiveness.

"It is not surprising at all that the President or the Vice President did not consider having an official state visit to Saudi Arabia to personally ask OFWs Bidoya's clemency by the Saudi King and to personally meet the victim's family to ask their forgiveness as part of the efforts to save the life of OFW Jenifer Bidoya," he added.

The group said its members in the Middle East “extend(ed) their heartfelt condolences" to the family and relatives of Bidoya and saluted him as “a true hero who has sacrificed his self and life for his loved ones." GMA

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