SINGAPORE: FILIPINO MAID EXECUTED: WIDESPREAD PROTESTS

(17 Mar 1995) English/Nat

The Philippine maid convicted of murdering a colleague and a four-year-old boy in Singapore was executed Friday despite widespread protests and threats.

42-year-old Flor Contemplacion was hanged at dawn at the maximum security Changi prison.

The execution has focused attention on Singapore's strict legal system and sparked widespread protests in the Philippines about alleged mistreatment of Filipinos working abroad in low-paying jobs.

The execution of Flor Contemplacion took place at dawn while subdued protesters wept outside.

At the vigil was her distraught former cell mate Virginia Parumog who had spent most of the night giving new statements to the Singapore police to try for a stay of execution.

Parumog, who flew into Singapore yesterday, said Contemplacion had told her the boy drowned in the tub and his family killed the maid in a fit of rage.

In an unprecedented display of security for a Singapore hanging, flak-jacketed police with machine guns and dogs guarded the prison gates.

And police cars and motorcycles patrolled the nearby streets to deter any possible protest by the estimated 75-thousand Filipino maids working in Singapore.

Shortly after dawn a van from the Philippines Embassy entered the prison, followed by a mortuary van to pick up the body.

Contemplacion's lawyers has struggled until the last hours to delay the execution, claiming that there was fresh evidence to exonerate her.

But Singapore refused to make concessions and rejected the new evidence.

Contemplacion was convicted last April of killing another Filipino maid, Della Maga, and her four-year-old charge, Nicholas Huang, in May 1991.

Contemplacion, a mother of four, claimed that she was forced to confess. A murder conviction carries a mandatory death penalty in Singapore.

Contemplacion's 17-year-old daughter, a son, 21, and 15-year-old twins met her for the last time Thursday afternoon and flew back to Manila. Her husband remained in Manila during the past week.

The execution went ahead despite the new evidence. Emilia Frenilla, who used to work next door to Mrs. Maga, came forward to say she had overheard conversations that suggested the boy drowned in a bathtub during an epileptic fit and his enraged family killed the maid.

SOUNDBITE:
September 5 1991 Mr Wong Sing Huang and my employer, they are always talking of the Filipina, same, same it is better to kill the maid.
SUPER CAPTION Emilia Franilla

But even a personal plea from Philippine President Fidel Ramos could not prevent the sentence being carried out.

Contemplacion's plight won widespread sympathy in the Philippines, where protesters saw her as a victim of Singapore's harsh legal system.

Several thousand people camped overnight in front of the Singapore Embassy in Manila. They shouted "Justice for Flor!" as the sun rose Friday in the Philippine capital.

The case once again demonstrated that Singapore's strict legal system will not bow to anyone.

About thirty people have been sent to the gallows for murder since 1990.

Manila's papers echoed public sympathy for Flor.

Back at home, Flor Contemplacion's children remained shocked as they faced the media and could say little.

SOUNDBITE:
It is clear that Flor and her family could have been spared from this tragedy if the Ramos regime through its embassy in Singapore and the Department of Labour and Employment did its job as early as 1991. For failing to do its task of protecting our migrant workers the Ramos regime sent Flor to her death.



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