JEDDAH, 7 February 2007 — A Filipino worker on death row in the Kingdom has been freed and repatriated to the Philippines after the family of the person he killed accepted blood money payment.
Accompanied by Philippine Consul General Mohamad Noordin Pendosina N. Lomondot, 59-year-old Reynaldo “Mansour” San Pedro was flown to Manila on board a Malaysian Airlines flight on Monday night. He was welcomed by his family and welfare officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) yesterday afternoon.
In a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila, the consul general said San Pedro, a crane operator in Jeddah for 18 years, was arrested Dec. 1, 1999, and later handed a death sentence for killing fellow countryman Charito Tabag.
Citing court records, the report said San Pedro confessed to stabbing to death Tabag on Nov. 16 of that same year during a heated argument over a bet made on the Thai lotto, an illegal numbers game popular among expatriates in the Kingdom.
Six months before the killing, one of San Pedro’s bettors won SR45,000 but Tabag, who was the financier, had no money to pay the winner. Tabag asked San Pedro to advance the money to the winner, with an understanding that the amount would be paid after six months.
When San Pedro went to get back his money from Tabag on Nov. 16, Tabag got angry and a fight ensued, ending with San Pedro stabbing his friend and illegal business partner to death.
The report said that the victim’s widow, Evelyn Gapal Tabag, refused to accept diyah (blood money settlement) and instead sought qisas (blood for blood verdict) from the Jeddah Grand Shariah Court at an early stage of the case.
Through the DFA’s intercession, she agreed to accept the blood money settlement, demanding 3.5 million pesos. She later agreed to lower the amount to 2 million pesos, on condition that no Philippine government money would be used.
Consul General Lomondot said the consulate was able to get a philanthropist to pay the amount last year, but the donor asked not to be identified.
On July 9, 2006, a check amounting to SR145,834.95 (the equivalent of 2 million pesos) was submitted to the chief judge of the Jeddah Grand Shariah Court. On the same day, Florencio Tabag, brother of the victim who also works in the Kingdom and authorized by his family as representative in court proceedings, issued an affidavit forgiving San Pedro.
San Pedro, a native of San Ildefonso town in Bulacan, near Manila, was the second death row Filipino worker in Jeddah to be spared execution during Lomondot’s watch.
In July, last year, the Jeddah Grand Shariah Court freed Melvin Obejera, 32, after the family of Andrew Kabandocos of Cagayan de Oro City accepted blood money settlement also upon the intercession of the DFA.
Obejera confessed to accidentally killing the victim while trying to break up a fight involving fellow Filipino workers in 2003.
The Philippines is also working for the release of six of its citizens who are on death row in different parts of the Kingdom. Last year, nearly 350 Filipino inmates in the Kingdom were granted royal clemency as a goodwill gesture by the Saudi government during President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s May 8-12 state visit.
Most of those jailed were found guilty or were facing charges of immorality and alcohol or drug-related offenses, according to the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh.
There are an estimated 900,000 OFWs in Saudi Arabia, the second biggest overseas Filipino community after the United States.
