They will be the first Filipinos to be executed in China of any crime, reported DFA Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr. at a press briefing, which followed a meeting at Malacanang.

”President Aquino gave clear and ringing instructions that we don’t leave any stone unturned to secure the commutation,” Conejos told a packed crowd of reporters at the DFA.

Noting that the President, early in his administration, has written Chinese President Hu Jintao for intervention on the cases, Conejos said that such “high-level intercessions” are being continued, including discussions with China’s ambassador to Manila, Liu Jianchao.

He also noted that outgoing DFA Secretary Alberto G. Romulo had also appealed to his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi.

However, the DFA official declined to confirm if a high-level executive official would go to China anytime soon to personally make a last-minute plea in Beijing to impose life sentences, instead.

It was learned that Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, in his concurrent capacity as Presidential Adviser on OFW Concerns, had expressed willingness to travel to China if need be.

The convicts' families would be allowed to visit them a day before the execution date, but, no one, not even officers of the Philippine consulates-general in Xiamen and Guangzhou will be allowed to witness their deaths, Conejos remarked.

Their names and origin were not divulged reportedly “in deference to the wishes of their families." The convicts are a man and two women, all middle-aged.

The 42-year old man is the father of five children, while the 32 year-old woman has two. Both were arrested in the Xiamen City in China's southeastern province of Fujian within days of each other in December 2008, with more than 4,000 grams each of heroin in their luggage. Their flights originated from Manila. The Xiamen convicts are due to be executed on February 21.

The third convict, a woman aged 38, was arrested in May of 2008 in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, after getting off from a flight from Kuala Lumpur, carrying 6,700 grams of heroin. Her execution is on Februay 22.

They have received visits from their families and were assisted by competent lawyers throughout their ordeal, according to Conejos.

At their trials, all three did not plead guilty, Conejos said, but they stuck to their story that while they owned the luggage in which the illegal drugs were loaded, they were duped into carrying the drugs by persons unknown to them.

Conejos said that in the record of the trials, there was no indication why they were off to China in the first place.

The DFA did not indicate when their death sentences by the Higher Court were affirmed by the People’s Supreme Court of China but received information about the decision on February 11 through the consulates-general.

Their cases were among 227 in China involving Filipinos and drugs-dealing in the past years, the DFA said. China metes out the death penalty, life imprisonment, or 15 years in detention for anyone convicted of smuggling at least 50 grams of heroin and other illegal drugs.

Convicts receiving two-year reprieves from the death penalty could qualify for commutation with good behavior.

Conejos would not speculate on the chances of a commutation for the three — who were not granted reprieves — and instead remarked that in China, there are “no abbreviated proceedings, so it must be difficult to overturn (decisions).”

“But we are trying hard, we continue to engage Chinese authorities on humanitarian grounds” because, as he reiterated, the Filipinos are victims of drug syndicates operating internationally.

The DFA official repeatedly referred to the ”deep disappointment and sadness” of the Philippine government over China’s decision, which, he claimed, did not consider Beijing’s own laws that combined severity and leniency.

He bewailed the fact that the “quantum of evidence” that the Philippine side produced to show that international drug syndicates manipulated the Filipinos, “should have been satisfactory.” But, he added, apparently, this was not the appreciation of the Chinese side.

He stated that the evidence included information from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and an internal memo of the Philippine Supreme Court on the scourge.

He pointed out that the Filipinos were victims and merited lighter punishments and that their financiers and operators are the ones who deserve the harshest.

”We ask not for complete exoneration, but, at least, life imprisonment,” he went on. “We bow to the majesty of China’s laws, but we also appeal for humanitarian considerations.”

If executed, the Filipinos join citizens of the United Kingdom, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, Mongolia and Afghanistan who have been executed for drug trafficking. The British national’s execution went ahead despite the high-profile appeal of then British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Gloria Jane Baylon, Manila Bulletin