Only a miracle can now save a Filipino from being executed in China on Thursday after last-minute appeals were rejected by Chinese authorities.
The Philippine government Wednesday stormed heaven with prayers for a miracle to save the drug-trafficking convict from execution in the Guangzxi Zhuang autonomous region.
The death sentence on the Filipino, 35, will be promulgated at the Guilin Municipal Intermediate People’s Court Thursday after an 8:30 a.m. meeting with his siblings, who were flown there by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
He will then be transported to the Liu Zhou County, which is two hours away, for execution by lethal injection “if at all it will be affirmed,” DFA spokesman Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez told reporters.
Still praying
“We are still hoping; we are still praying. The whole government, the whole nation is one with the family in praying that a miracle will happen; that a change of mind will take place so that the sentence will be commuted from death penalty to life imprisonment. That is our prayer and hope,” he told a forum at the Philippine Information Agency.
“And I hope the whole Filipino nation will join us in the prayer at this time of the need of our kababayan (compatriot),” he added.
Two of the Filipino convict’s siblings and two other relatives have arrived in China, Hernandez said.
“The family will be accompanied by a Filipino priest during the visit,” he said.
A Mass was celebrated Wednesday for the Filipino convict, who will only be informed of his fate on the day of his execution.
The Filipino was nabbed at the Guilin International Airport on Sept. 13, 2008, upon his arrival from Malaysia after 1.495 kilograms of heroin was found in his possession.
Last month, China’s Supreme People’s Court affirmed the death sentence on the Filipino.
Vice President Jejomar Binay was supposed to go to China to deliver President Aquino’s letter of appeal to Chinese Premiere Hu Jin Tao for a commutation of the Filipino’s sentence on humanitarian grounds. But the government failed to arrange Binay’s trip.
Grim reminder
Hernandez said the government would continue to hope for a possible commutation and stay of the execution, even though the Chinese have never commuted a death sentence in the past.
“The appeal that we’re doing is on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. We want to hold on to that, not only for the sake of the Filipino but for the sake of the family. That’s why we’re asking to the Filipino people to continue praying that the miracle would happen,” he said.
“Until that moment comes, we should continue hoping,” he added.
He, however, noted that other nationals had been executed despite appeals from their respective governments.
“The Chinese have a very strict anti-drug policy. Whatever their court decides on is implemented,” he said.
Hernandez said the case should serve as a grim reminder of the dire consequence of drug trafficking.
“We’re appealing to the Filipinos not to be conned by international drug syndicates. They have different modus operandi. We should be wary of their monetary offers that in the end make you pay for your life. In China, drug is equivalent to death. This is also true in other countries,” he said.
Until his arrest, the Filipino’s family did not know he was engaged in drug trafficking, and thought he was a just a tourist “traveling back and forth,” according to Hernandez.
But despite China’s tough stance, Binay remains optimistic Chinese authorities would heed the Philippine government’s plea for the commutation of the death sentence on the Filipino convict.—With a report from Tina G. Santos