DFA appeals case of 3 OFWs on Saudi death row

Philippine officials are exhausting all legal remedies to help three overseas Filipino workers convicted of killing and robbing another Filipino worker in Jeddah on April 15, 2008. "Consul General Ezzedin Tago said the legal counsel of the three Filipinos filed an appeal before the Jizan General Court last July 4," the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a release posted on its website. In case, however, that the death penalty is upheld, the DFA said it will ask President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy" Aquino III to intercede in the case of the three workers. “In the event the Supreme Court sustains its decision, the DFA said President Aquino could make representations with the Saudi King for the grant of executive clemency to Victorino Gaspar, Jr., Paul Miquibas, and Edgardo Genetiano," the DFA said. It added that the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah is now closely coordinating with the families of the accused and of the victim. On April 6 this year, Victorino Gaspar Jr., Paul Miquibas, and Edgardo Genetiano were found guilty of murder with robbery by the Jizan General Shari'ah Court (trial court) on a vote of 3-2 by a committee of five judges. They were sentenced to suffer the penalty of ta'azeeran qati, or death which cannot be settled by payment of blood money. The three OFWs were convicted for the murder of Raymundo Dimaculangan, another OFW from Laguna, after stealing his SR32,000 (P394,740) which he borrowed from a bank, on April 15, 2008. The Consulate General said it has engaged the services of the Law Office of Abdullah Al Johani to represent Gaspar, Miquibas, and Genetiano. "The Consulate General has been conducting regular jail visitation and extending consular assistance to the three convicted Filipinos and regularly giving their families updates on their case," the DFA said. There are now at least 30 Filipinos on death row in the Middle East alone, according to migrants’ rights group Migrante-Middle East. On April 13, 30-year-old Joselito Zapanta was sentenced to death for allegedly killing his Sudanese landlord, despite his pleas of self-defense. Early this year, 34-year-old Jakatia Pawa, a domestic worker in Kuwait, was also sentenced to death by hanging for killing the daughter of her employer. - JMA/RJAB Jr/KBK, GMANews.TV