“Vice President Jejomar Binay arrives on Friday to discuss with Saudi officials the ban on hiring new Filipino domestic helpers. But we will also ask him to plead with the Saudi government on behalf of eight Filipinos who are on death row,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante Middle East regional coordinator, told Arab News on Wednesday.

He said the Filipinos on death row include Don Lanuza, Rolando and Edison Gonzales and Eduardo Arcilla.

He added that the Philippine government must hold talks with the Saudi government urgently after Filipinos in China were executed on Wednesday after being convicted of smuggling drugs.

The executed Filipinos included Sally Ordinario Villanueva, 32; Ramon Credo, 42; and Elizabeth Batain, 28.

Monterona lamented the fact that nobody knows what action the Philippine government has taken so far on behalf of the eight workers on death row in the Kingdom.

“We are urging Vice President Jejomar Binay to intervene on their behalf by taking up their case with the authorities,” he said.

Monterona had already suggested the formation of a high-level inter-agency task force to find ways to have death sentences commuted instead.