A 35-year-old man convicted of drug trafficking, the fourth national from the Philippines to be put to death for peddling dangerous drugs by the world’s most prolific executioner.
Hours before he received lethal injection, the Filipino, who was not identified at the request of his family, was allowed to meet briefly with his two siblings and two cousins, who traveled to south China’s Guangxi province, where the execution was carried out.
“The subject was very calm but his family kept on crying,” Vice President Jejomar Binay told reporters in Manila, adding the man was given last rites and last communion by a Filipino priest, a certain Father Emil, who accompanied the family and consulate officials to the Guilin detention facility.
The man was 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, Binay said.
“At 12:30 p.m., our countryman was executed,” he added.
The man was arrested in 2008 at Guilin International Airport while trying to smuggle in 1.5 kilograms of heroin from Malaysia. Smuggling more than 50 grams of heroin or other drugs is punishable by death in China.
Malacañang said China did not reply to President Benigno Aquino III’s letter asking for the commutation of the sentence. The Philippines has abolished the death penalty.
“It looks like there was no response,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said when asked if Chinese President Hu Jintao had replied to Mr. Aquino’s letter. “We take that as a decision from them that the sentence was final and it was actually carried out today.”
Lacierda renewed the government’s warning to Filipinos trying their luck overseas not to allow themselves to be used by crime groups to smuggle illegal substances.
“We have always been telling the public and those who are traveling to work abroad not to be used as drug mules,” he said.
Published reports say that of the Filipinos used by syndicates to smuggle illegal drugs, 62 percent are women and 38 percent are men.
The women reportedly are paid between $500 and $5,000 to swallow tubes containing the drugs, hide them in their genitals, or soak them into paper or books.
The Philippines has more than 200 people languishing in Chinese jails on drug-related charges.
They are part of what authorities have said is a growing trend of poor Filipinos targeted by international drug syndicates to transport their contraband around the world. About nine million Filipinos work abroad, and the drug traffickers have particularly targeted the overseas diaspora.
Overlapping territorial claims over potentially gas-rich islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) have strained ties between Manila and Beijing.
