Talks on Zapanta continue as ‘execution order signed’

The Philippine government’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced on Wednesday that negotiations for Joselito Zapanta are still ongoing despite reports that his execution order had been signed.
“The order was signed regarding the implementation of the death sentence for Zapanta but that was signed last year,” Raul Hernandez, DFA spokesman, said in a press conference in Manila.
Hernandez said, “There has been no date set for his execution...the implementation has been held in abeyance pending ongoing negotiations.”
Zapanta, a tile fitter, was sentenced to death for killing his Sudanese landlord, Saleh Imam Ibrahim, over an argument on rental payments in 2009.
Zapanta was known to have hit the victim with a hammer and later ran off with his mobile phone before being arrested by the Saudi police.
Earlier, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said that the Saudi government would likely maintain a neutral stand regarding the appeal made by the Philippine, as Zapanta’s victim was not a Saudi.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah had played a key role in the release of Rodelio Lanuza, who was jailed for 13 years for slaying a Saudi national in self-defense.
King Abdullah shouldered SR2.3 million of the SR3 million of Lanuza’s blood money, paving the way for the commutation of his death sentence.
Jejomar Binay, vice president and presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers concerns, has repeatedly appealed to the public for more contributions to raise blood money for Zapanta.
“There’s still a chance, negotiations are still open...let’s not alarm the public anymore. The paperwork is moving, there’s still a process to be followed,” Binay said.
The Philippine government has been seeking to extend the deadline to settle the blood money of SR4 million or 45 million pesos to the heirs of the victim.
It’s currently working with the Sudanese Embassy in Saudi Arabia in hopes of reaching the victim’s family to make the appeal.
Binay, who had been helping raise Zapanta’s blood money through public appeals, said that the jailed Filipino was “ready to face his fate.”






The date for his execution was set a year ago but he won several reprieves through extended deadlines to resettle the blood money.