VP Binay: Family doesn't want public to know if Pinay convict was executed

Tags: Jejomar Binay
Vice President Jejomar Binay will neither confirm nor deny.

Surrounded by media eager to know the fate of a convicted Pinay drug courier in China, Vice President Jejomar Binay on Tuesday afternoon said the convict's family asked the government not to announce to the public for now whether the Filipina has already been executed.

Binay revealed this to reporters in a press briefing on Tuesday, the day when the Filipina was expected to be executed.

The Filipina, who entered China from Dubai through a connecting flight in Hong Kong, was apprehended at the Hangzhou International Airport on January 25, 2011 after authorities found 6.198 kilos in her luggage.

She was arrested with a Filipino male companion – a cousin - who was caught carrying 6.171 kilos of heroin. But the woman was found to be a repeat smuggler and sentenced to death.

Binay said the Filipina will not be receiving any benefits from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) as she went to China as a tourist, not as an overseas Filipino worker.

"Sabihin na natin ng diretso, walang matatanggap ito sa OWWA dahil hindi naman ito documented overseas worker," Binay said.

"Execution very imminent"

The Department of Foreign Affairs, also on Tuesday, said the execution of the Filipina may be “very imminent.”

“We have not yet received any specific date or time for the execution of our kababayan in Hangzhou but it seems that it is very imminent,” DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez told a press briefing. 

“We don’t know if we will be informed before or after (the execution),” Hernandez said. “There are cases that we were informed before and there were cases that it happened right after the visit of the family of the accused.”

If the execution pushes through, she would be the fifth Filipino drug courier to be punished by death through lethal injection in China. China executed two Filipino women and two men for drug trafficking in 2011.

In China alone, there are a total of 213 drug-related cases involving Filipino nationals in China. Of this figure, 28 resulted in death penalty convictions with two-year reprieves, 67 got life imprisonment and 107 termed imprisonment while 10 are still pending in Chinese courts.

A person caught in possession of illegal drugs in the amount of more than 50 grams is meted the death penalty in China if convicted.

The Philippine government said it respects China’s decision, but hopes it would heed its appeal to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.

President Benigno S. Aquino III appealed to Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping through a letter on June 27 to spare the Filipino’s life. China has yet to respond to Aquino’s request. – with  reports fromXianne Arcangel, Michaela del Callar, VVP/HS, GMA News

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