Arroyo pushing through with Kuwait visit - Bunye

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is proceeding to Kuwait after all. “Yes, she will proceed," presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a text message Thursday night when asked about developments in Mrs Arroyo’s plan to personally appeal to the emir for pardon for Marilou Ranario. The President planned to make a side trip to Kuwait on Tuesday after a private visit in Spain, and before returning to Manila. On Wednesday night, Bunye said the trip was "not pushing through." Bunye did not say Thursday night of the Department of Foreign Affairs had received a response from Kuwait on the availability of Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah for a meeting with Mrs Arroyo on Dec. 10. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said on Wednesday it would make no sense if the President would proceed to Kuwait without a confirmed appointment with the emir whose signature is required to carry out the death verdict on Ranario. “Wala pang information from DFA if that arrangement has been made. It’s very important, first ang purpose ng President kung pupunta doon, makipag-usap dun sa Emir ng Kuwait. Kung wala naman (siya) doon during this period na the President is there, then, there is no sense for the President to go there,’ Ermita explained to newsmen. Ermita said the President asked the DFA to set the meeting “if there is a probability, however slim it might be, to meet emir." However, in his press conference early afternoon on Wednesday, Ermita said the last he heard was that the President’s trip to Kuwait “could be postponed because the arrangement did not materialize." Instead, the DFA would be sending the President’s letter to the emir. Sending of the letter was put on hold in the hope that a meeting would be arranged between Mrs. Arroyo and the emir. Kuwait’s Cassation Court upheld on Nov. 27 the appellate court’s death sentence on Ranario, a 35-year-old teacher from Surigao del Norte who went to Kuwait in December 2003 to work as a domestic helper. She was sentenced to die by hanging for killing her lady employer in January 2005. Before the Cassation court verdict, government officials were optimistic that Ranario’s death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment after four of the five immediate relatives of her victim signed the tanazul (affidavit of forgiveness) and accepted “blood money." They maintained this optimism in appealing to the emir. Hours after the Cassation court ruling came out, the President immediately instructed Vice President Manuel de Castro to make arrangements for his trip to Kuwait to personally give her letter of appeal to the emir. De Castro has yet to finalize his trip to Kuwait. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, meantime, has been assisting the parents and a sister of Ranario in preparing for a separate trip to Kuwait to visit Marilou in jail. Arroyo had planned to drop by Kuwait on Dec. 10 before returning to Manila from her eight-day trip to France, Spain and United Kingdom. - GMANews.TV