Aquino not optimistic on case of Pinoy convict in China

President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday hinted that chances of securing a commutation for the Filipino set to be executed in China may be slim, noting past incidents when the Chinese government went on with similar executions despite appeals from the Philippine government. “I’m still awaiting a reply from the letter that I sent to [Chinese] President Hu Jintao, but I will have to be realistic given the time that we did appeal to them… we were not able to secure a commutation for those [who] were executed previously,” he said during Bulong Pulungan forum in Pasay City. He was referring to the three Filipinos – Sally Villanueva, Elizabeth Batain and Ramon Credo – who were executed in China last March after being convicted for drug trafficking. “We have communicated the same time and again, to our Chinese counterparts and to their Embassy officials, they answered and replied that there is a serious problem with drugs in their country and this has gone through judicial process,” Aquino added. The Philippine government is currently appealing the case of a 35-year-old Filipino who is set to be executed on Dec. 8 after being convicted of drug trafficking. The death sentence has been affirmed by the Guangxi High People’s Court and subsequently upheld by the Supreme People’s Court of China. Aquino’s letter of appeal to Hu was personally delivered by  Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is also the presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers concerns, to the Chinese Embassy in Manila on Tuesday afternoon. Binay was supposed to leave for China to deliver the letter to the Chinese president, but the Chinese government said the visit was not arranged. With the involvement of Filipinos in international drug syndicates, Aquino said his administration has been “really seriously analyzing our war against drugs.” He said to accomplish this, prosecutors must be very effective in their jobs. “We have stressed to the prosecutors that your ability to shift papers from one desk to another is no longer the criteria for promotions; the ability to win cases, to file the appropriate cases and to win the said cases is the sole criteria of whether or not you will have meritorious promotion,” he said.  — KBK, GMA News