Saudi-based OFWs set up group to help death row inmate


Tags: Jonard Langamin
Overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia are banding to help another fellow OFW now in death row in the Kingdom's Dammam area.

The OFW Congress in Riyadh and Dammam said it will explore ways to help former seaman Jonard Langamin, Arab News reported Saturday.

“We cannot do this alone. We should join hands and work together if we want to save Langamin,” said Alex Bello, president of the Riyadh-based OFW Congress.

Dammam-based OFW Congress President Mary Jane Tupas added the group will discuss the matter in its next meeting.

“We will definitely take action and help Langamin so that he can also be released,” she said.

Dammam's high court in 2008 sentenced Langamin to death for killing Filipino Robertson Mendoza that same year.

Langamin's plight is similar to Rodelio Lanuza, who spent 13 years in jail and was sentenced to death for a killing in 2000.

But Lanuza has since been pardoned and was allowed to return to the Philippines.

The Arab News report said Langamin could have been released in 2012, but that his family cannot afford the blood money demanded by the victim’s family.

Vice President and presidential adviser on OFW affairs Jejomar Binay earlier said the Philippine government had not forgotten Langamin and is working to help him.

“We have not abandoned Langamin. We are currently negotiating with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh to resolve this case,” Arab News quoted Binay as saying. — LBG, GMA News

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