A Philippine man convicted on drug trafficking charges was executed in China yesterday despite an appeal for clemency from Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on humanitarian grounds, Philippine officials said.
Hours before he was put to death, the 35-year-old man, who was not identified, was allowed to meet briefly with his two siblings and two cousins who traveled to Guangxi Province in China, Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay said.
The man was then led to a courtroom where the sentence was read and whisked away to the death chamber, located in Liuzhou, about two hours away from the prison, where he was given a lethal injection, he said.
“The subject was very calm, but his family was crying,” Binay said. “At 12:30[pm] our countryman was executed.”
The man was arrested in 2008 at Guilin International Airport while trying to smuggle 1.5kg of heroin from Malaysia. Smuggling more than 0.05kg of heroin or other drugs is punishable by death in China.
Although China went ahead with the execution despite Aquino’s appeal for clemency, government officials have said they respect China’s judicial system and that the execution would not hurt bilateral relations.
Overlapping territorial claims over potentially gas-rich islands in the South China Sea have strained ties between the Philippines and China.
China is the world’s biggest executioner, according to Amnesty International. The Philippines and Cambodia are Southeast Asia’s only nations to have abolished the death penalty.
In March, China executed three Filipino workers also convicted of smuggling heroin, despite last-minute appeals and political concessions by Philippine leaders. The Philippine government said it could prove that a drug syndicate had taken advantage of the accused.
The head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Jose Gutierrez Jr, said earlier that authorities were hunting for the recruiter of the executed drug mule, who is suspected to be a member of an African drug trafficking syndicate. He said the man convicted in China had previously engaged in drug trafficking and was paid US$4,000 to US$6,000 for every smuggling operation.
On the streets, reaction was mixed.
“On the one hand, if he really did it and is deserving of that punishment, then this is all right,” construction worker Edwin Cruzado said. “But if a person is innocent, that is very sad.”
He said that poverty was no excuse for a crime.
“But their punishment in China is a bit harsh,” Cruzado added.
The plight of millions of Philippine citizens living overseas, most of them contractual workers, is an emotional issue in the country.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS