MANILA: Philippine Vice-President Jejomar Binay will go to China in a last-ditch effort to save a Filipina from being executed for drug-trafficking, his office said yesterday.
Binay will leave on Sunday, carrying a letter from President Benigno Aquino to Chinese President Xi Jinping asking to spare the woman, a statement from the vice-president’s office said.
Commenting on the chances for success, Binay said: “Let’s just continue praying.” Binay said this would be his second time to go to China to deliver a letter asking for a stay of execution. In February 2011 he had sought a reprieve for three Filipinos also convicted of drug trafficking, but the three were eventually executed on March 30, 2011.
The executions triggered widespread condemnation in the Philippines, which abolished the death penalty in 2006.
The woman facing execution was one of two Filipinos arrested for smuggling more than 12kgs (26 pounds) of high-grade heroin into China in 2011. Her male companion, who was caught with her, has also been handed a death penalty but with a two-year delay.
Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the government was seeking to bring the woman’s family to China as soon as possible so they could see her before she dies. AFP
