MANILA, Philippines—Relatives and sympathizers of three Filipinos scheduled to be executed on Wednesday by the Chinese government for heroin smuggling in Xiamen City are offering a tsunami of prayers through vigils to spare their lives.
The fate of Sally Villanueva, 33, Elizabeth Batain, 38, and Ramon Credo, 42, has been sealed after China turned down the Philippine government’s final plea for another—perhaps permanent—stay of execution.
Masses will be continuously held across the country for the three Filipinos and for the Chinese government to still change its mind, Fr. Edwin Corros, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Pastoral Care of Migrant and Itinerant People (ECMI), said over Church-run Radio Veritas.
The commission is under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
On Sunday, Christian evangelist Eduardo Villanueva called on Filipinos and all Christian churches in the country to “pray as a nation” as time ticked toward doomsday.
Seventy-two other Filipinos are facing death sentences in China, but they had been given two-year reprieves. Under Chinese law, a death sentence with a two-year reprieve can be commuted to life imprisonment for good behavior in jail, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Prayer vigils
Starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday until early Wednesday, families of Sally Villanueva and Credo will mount prayer vigils in their neighborhoods in Barangay Panapaan 7, Bacoor town in Cavite province and in Batasan Hills, Quezon City. They will be joined by members of the militant Filipino migrant workers’ group Migrante International (MI).
The ECMI and the Archdiocese of Manila’s Ministry for Migrants and their families also set a prayer vigil at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Nuestra Señora de Guia Parish Shrine in Ermita, Manila.
The rosary will be recited during the vigil, the commission announced.
“Our Church continues to pray and hold Masses hoping that God may touch the hearts of the Chinese government and that they postpone the execution of our fellow Filipinos,” Corros said.
MI president Garry Martinez said that “unlike some top officials of the Aquino administration, we are still hoping the executions will not push through.”
Ethan Y. Sun, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Makati City, Monday told the Inquirer that Beijing’s position on the issue had been “made clear” as early as February when the Supreme People’s Court in the Chinese capital sentenced the three convicts to death.
On Saturday, Ambassador Liu Jianchao asked for understanding from the Philippine government and from Filipinos about the executions that he said would now have to take place under their laws.
Lethal injection
On March 24, the DFA announced that the executions would be carried out Wednesday, March 30.
Villanueva and Credo will die by lethal injection in Xiamen, and Batain will be executed in Shenzhen, it said. The three were arrested separately in 2008 for smuggling 4 to 6 kilograms of heroin to China.
China had postponed the executions, originally scheduled for Feb. 20 following an official visit to Beijing by Vice President Jejomar Binay on President Benigno Aquino III’s behalf.
The President on Saturday told reporters that Malacañang had been “communicating (with Chinese authorities) continuously … We’re still trying to get them to reduce the penalty. But there’s a limit to what we can do.”
“At the end of the day, these were crimes committed in a different country. It doesn’t help that they admitted they were doing something illegal,” Mr. Aquino said.
“But it doesn’t make us stop trying,” he added.
Migrante picket
On Monday, Migrante members picketed the DFA headquarters in Pasay City, lambasting the agency’s “slow legal response, if not inaction” on the cases involving over 125 Filipinos on death row in various parts of the world.
The Inquirer has published a three-page sworn statement of Villanueva, one of the Filipino convicts, who said she “was only used as a courier to smuggle drugs from the Philippines to China.” She named her recruiter, Mapet Cortez, alias Tita Cacayan, as the source of the drugs she carried.
Villanueva said Cortez was “part of a big drug syndicate operating in the Philippines and other countries” and that she “knowingly tricked” her into carrying a suitcase with concealed heroin.” Cortez has denied the allegation.
In a statement, Binay said the affidavit showed that Villanueva “was used by a drug syndicate” and, therefore, “does not deserve the death penalty.”
“We hope and pray that her affidavit would be considered. We do not condone drug trafficking, but in Sally’s case, her recruiter clearly took advantage of her trusting nature,” he said.
Chinese law
Binay asserted that “under Chinese law, the severest form of penalty is given to leaders of drug syndicates and allows leniency for those in lower positions.”
He was referring to Item No. 30 of Chapter 4 of the “Notice of the Supreme People’s Court on Implementing the Criminal Policy of Combining Leniency with Rigidity,” issued on Feb. 28.
“Item No. 30 states that masterminds of smuggling, fraud and drug trafficking shall be sentenced to severe penalties of death. However, those who were forced to join the crime organization or who played minor roles shall be given leniency or commutation if they meet the requirements,” Binay said.
According to the Vice President, “this is the basis for our appeal to China. These drug syndicates took advantage of the economic difficulties of our kababayan.”
Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said Malacañang did not know whether Villanueva’s affidavit would have an “impact” and help save the three Filipino convicts.
“That’s something for Chinese authorities to decide,” he told reporters.
Recruiters
“It’s now in the hands of China whether her execution would be stayed or not,” Carandang said. He noted that even if the Chinese officials had previously said they would not change their decision to proceed with the execution, the Palace would continue to hope otherwise.
Still, he said the government would look at the affidavit and pursue Villanueva’s recruiters.
“This was a crime committed by more than one person and we’re going after the drug syndicates that led to the death sentences,” he said.
Assistant Foreign Secretary J. Eduardo Malaya, who is also DFA spokesperson, said “there is much value in allowing her (Villanueva) to speak unfiltered, even if only to reinforce the warning to others never to allow themselves to be duped by drug traffickers.”
Malaya appealed anew to Filipinos traveling overseas, especially overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), “not to allow themselves to be unwitting or willing victims of international drug trafficking syndicates.”
The Catholic Church Monday said it would provide assistance, including stress debriefing, to the families of the Filipino convicts.
Corros assured them that they could always seek out the Church and its clergy for problems which the government could not work out. This also applies to other distressed OFWs, he said. With reports from Christine O. Avendaño and Jocelyn R. Uy