VP Binay re-appeals case of Pinoy on death row in China

Vice President Jejomar Binay has re-appealed the case of the Filipino who is set to be executed in China this week.

 

In a letter dated December 3, Binay asked Chinese Ambassador Liu Jianchiao for help in getting the Chinese government's permission to allow him to personally transmit the Philippines' formal appeal against the execution of the 35-year-old Filipino over drug trafficking charges.

 

"During Your Excellency’s long stay here in the Philippines, I am sure you have experienced that within the context of our culture, the scheduled execution is particularly painful not only to the victim’s family but also to our predominantly Catholic Christian nation for obvious reasons," Binay wrote in the letter.

 

In a statement released Monday, Binay said he told Liu that the mother of the convicted Filpino is seriously ill and that "the shock of her son's fate might result in her consequent death."

 

He also said that the execution would "sadden the country and mar the usually festive month of December." 

 

"December is generally regarded as the happiest season for Filipino families, who celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which falls on the execution date... as well as Christmas and New Year," he said.

 

The Filipino is set to be executed on December 8.

 

The Vice President, who is also presidential adviser on OFW concerns, likewise said that it was not easy for him and President Benigno Aquino III to make the appeal because they were "fully aware and completely respectful of how China’s legal system works."

 

"But we would not be true to our duty to our own countrymen and to our Asian and Filipino culture if the President and I failed to make this appeal," he said.

 

"No matter how just the sentence is, it will not be easy for our people who look to China as a great friend and protector of our Asian culture and values to understand for the OFW to be executed considering the foregoing circumstances," he added. — Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, GMA News