Portion of P23-M blood money should go to Joselito Zapanta's family –bishop

A bishop on Monday appealed to the government to give part of the P23 million blood money raised to supposedly save overseas Filipino worker Joselito Zapanta from execution in Saudi Arabia to his family in the Philippines.
Balanga, Bataan Bishop Ruperto Santos, who chairs the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines' Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant Peoples (CBCP-ECMI), made the appeal after Zapanta was beheaded in Riyadh for killing a Sudanese national in 2009.
"Tama lamang na ipagpatuloy natin ang pagtulong sa naiwan na mahal sa buhay ni Joselito Zapanta," Santos said on Radyo Veritas, adding Zapanta, who came from a poor family in Pampanga, left behind a wife and two children, aged 13 and 11.
The P23 million raised by Zapanta's family is currently in a bank account opened by the Philippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia.
"Ang pagpapasalamat natin sa kanya, sa kanyang ginawa na pagpapakasakit para mahal niya sa buhay at pati na rin sa ekonomiya na ay maipakilala/maipakita sa pamamagitan ng blood money na itulong, ipagkaloob sa pangangailangan ng dalawang anak ni Joselito," Santos said.
Santos also urged the government to extend all efforts to help some 1,000 OFWs incarcerated in other countries over various charges, including the 88 who are on death row.
"Dapat natin itong ibigay sa nangangailangan, para sa mga naiwan ni Joselito at gamitin na rin sa mga iba pang nasa piitan upang mapalaya. Tama lamang na ipagpatuloy ang pagtulong. Hindi ibig sabihin na lumisan na si Joselito, hindi na natin tutulungan," he said. —KBK, GMA News

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