Christian evangelist Eduardo Villanueva Sunday called on Filipinos and on all Christian churches in the country to “pray as a nation” so that the three death convicts scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday may still be granted clemency by Chinese authorities.

“Out of compassion for these overseas Filipino workers forced to work abroad and their families, let us fulfill our Christian mandate to pray,” Villanueva, head of the Jesus is Lord Church, said in a statement.

“[There is] a need [for us] to pray as a nation to give hope to the three,” he added.

Villanueva urged the government “not to leave any single stone unturned” in convincing China to commute the Filipinos’ death sentences to life imprisonment.

“Overseas Filipino workers … who are forced to look for employment outside the country should be given leniency and mercy,” he said.

The three—Ramon Credo, 42; Sally Villanueva, 33, and Elizabeth Batain, 38—were convicted on separate charges of smuggling between 4,000 and 6,800 grams of heroin to China in 2008. In China, smuggling of 50 grams or more of heroin, or equivalent drugs, is punishable by death.

Credo and Sally Villanueva are to be executed in Xiamen on Wednesday and Batain in Shenzhen.

China gave them a reprieve last month after Vice President Jejomar Binay went to Beijing to seek leniency for them. Last week, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said Beijing would push through with the executions on March 30.

The executions were originally scheduled for Feb. 20 and 21.

Efforts exhausted

Malacañang Sunday said it had done its best.

“We’ve done everything we can,” Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said in a phone interview, citing various moves taken by the administration.

These efforts included three letters written by President Benigno Aquino III to Chinese officials, Carandang said. He said Mr. Aquino had also brought up the case of the Filipinos in “different forums” with Chinese officials.

Then, there were Binay’s personal appeals, the latest in a letter sent last week to Chinese officials.

Carandang acknowledged that it would take “a miracle” to stop the executions.

Recruiter charged

Interviewed on state radio dzRB, Carandang said the Philippines was not questioning the Chinese rulings on the Filipinos’ cases.

“What we are questioning was that being a country opposed to the death penalty, we were appealing that the death sentences be commuted consistent with our laws. But at the end of the day, that’s the call of the Chinese government and we need to respect that,” he said.

Sally Villanueva, who was arrested at a Xiamen airport on Christmas Eve 2008 after she was found carrying 4,110 grams of heroin in a suitcase, told Chinese authorities that the suitcase was given to her by an Isabela province mate she identified as “Mapet Cortez aka (also known as) Tita Cacayan.” She said she did not know it contained drugs.

A top NBI official Sunday said the agency had filed a complaint of “large-scale illegal recruitment” against Cacayan and that the Department of Justice would hold a preliminary investigation on April 4.

Cacayan is not a licensed recruiter for overseas employment, said Ruel Lasala, NBI deputy director for intelligence services.

There are several complainants in the case against Cacayan. They include Sally Villanueva and her brother Jason, her mother Basilisa and Villanueva’s husband Hilarion, Lasala said.

Cacayan’s claim

The other complainants were Lorenzo Salazar, Ronnie Abuyan and Jennifer Leano.

Cacayan, of Alicia, Isabela, went to the NBI last month and denied that she had passed on a suitcase containing heroin to Sally Villanueva. She said it was possible that the Villanueva family was linking her to the drugs case so that Sally Villanueva would have “someone else with her in jail, or when she is hanged.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it had made “exhaustive representations with the Chinese government at all levels” to plead for all Filipinos under the death penalty in China.

Referring to Credo, Sally Villanueva and Batain, the DFA statement said: “The government ensured that their legal rights were respected and observed and their welfare protected from the time of their arrests and throughout the judicial process and even up to this very day.”

Need to act early

Assistant Foreign Secretary J. Eduardo Malaya said appeals on behalf of the three death convicts had been made by the President and then Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo.

Philippine consulate officials also visited Credo, Sally Villanueva and Batain several times, made sure they were represented by competent lawyers and closely monitored their cases, Malaya said.

Militant workers’ groups said the ordeal of Filipinos on death row in China and elsewhere should be a serious government concern even before they are scheduled for execution.

John Leonard Monterona, coordinator of Migrante-Middle East, claimed that in many criminal cases, the government would give serious legal assistance “only when the cases have attained finality.”

Seventy-five other Filipinos meted out the death penalty won two-year reprieves later from the Supreme People’s Court of China.

Under Chinese law, the original verdict may be commuted to life imprisonment if a prisoner displays good behavior.

Jocelyn Uy, Christine Avendano & Jerry Esplanada, Phil. Daily Inquirer