MANILA, 10 December 2007 — Kuwait’s ruler yesterday spared the life of a Filipino maid who had been condemned to die for killing her employer, the presidential palace in Manila said yesterday.
In a press statement, Malacañang said Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah agreed to reduce Marilou Ranario’s death sentence to life imprisonment during a 25-minute meeting with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at Kuwait’s Bayan Palace just after lunchtime yesterday.
Arroyo visited the Gulf state on her way home from a weeklong visit to Spain and the United Kingdom in a bid to save Ranario, a teacher from the southern Philippines who came to Kuwait to work as a domestic helper.
Ranario was first sentenced to death by a Kuwaiti criminal court in September 2005, or nine months after she was arrested for stabbing to death her 40-year-old Kuwaiti employer, Najat Mahmoud Faraj Mobarak.
The commutation of Ranario’s death sentence is said to be one of the rare times Kuwait’s ruler has intervened in his country’s judicial system.
“Normally, I don’t interfere in the judicial process. But since you are here to personally appeal for her, I will not sign the decree of execution. That is within my power,” the emir was quoted by Philippine presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye telling Arroyo.
“I will reduce the penalty to life and when the other parties sign the forgiveness, I will further reduce the penalty,” the emir was further quoted as saying.
Under Kuwaiti law, only the emir has the authority to reduce the sentence of a convicted person.
Ranario’s case was trumpeted by Manila as a triumph of the personal diplomacy of Arroyo, who has remained widely unpopular among Filipinos due to persistent corruption woes plaguing her government.
Last year, she also made a personal appeal to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to pardon at least 50 Filipinos languishing in Saudi jails for various offenses.
The king responded by releasing more than 300 as a goodwill gesture.
Bunye, in an e-mail to Malacañang Palace in Manila, said Arroyo thanked the Kuwaiti ruler for his “compassion.”
“The life of every overseas Filipino is important,” Bunye quoted the president as saying, before Arroyo and a small party headed to Kuwait for a four-hour visit just to see the emir.
With Arroyo’s delegation were Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Sen. Edgardo Angara, Ambassador Ricardo Endaya, and House of Representatives member Aurelio Gonzalez Jr.
Arroyo earlier sent her vice president, Noli de Castro, to deliver her letter of appeal to the Kuwaiti ruler after Kuwait’s Court of Cassation affirmed the death verdict on Ranario on Nov. 27.
The emir had two to three months to decide whether to sign Ranario’s death warrant.
Earlier reports said the Philippine government had obtained a letter of forgiveness (tanazul) from the victim’s mother, paternal brothers and a sister.
But the victim’s estranged husband refusal to pardon Ranario gave the court a basis to affirm the death sentence.
The Philippine Embassy in Kuwait earlier recommended to Arroyo to make available $70,000 as blood money for the victim’s estranged husband in exchange for tanazul.
Another Filipino maid is also on death row after Kuwait’s appeals court in September confirmed her death sentence for killing her employers’ two children early this year.
She is awaiting the final verdict of the Supreme Court.
Contentious Issue
Ranario’s case has drawn widespread attention in the Philippines, where the economy relies heavily on remittances from nearly eight million Filipinos working overseas.
Of that eight million, about 73,000 work in Kuwait. Some 60,000 are women employed mainly as maids and earning less than $200 a month on average, labor groups say.
“A million thanks to the emir of Kuwait for having a big heart and to President Arroyo for going out of her way to save the life of a compatriot,” said Imee Manalang in Alkhobar. Manalang is the president of the United Surigaonon Association, a group of Filipinos from Surigao province, where Ranario is from.
Ed Nicdao, chairman of the Cabalen Aguman Capampangan group in the Eastern Province, cited the Kuwaiti ruler for his humanitarian act. He also hoped that Filipinos would start considering Arroyo’s dedication in saving the lives of compatriots when they judge her presidency.
In Riyadh, overseas workers’ rights advocate Ronnie Abeto said: “It is euphoric news for Ranario’s family as well as for OFW communities; it only proves that if our top government officials will intervene timely, OFWs like Marilou can be saved from death. There were many Ranario’s waiting to be saved, but unlike Marilou, their cases were not highlighted by media and remain at the back of klieg lights.”
Abeto also reminded the Philippine government that some 35 OFWs are in death row abroad and thousands more are languishing in jail for various crimes.
“Do we need to stage a daily street protest, a daily vigil and be at the front page of both local and international media to get the attention of the president that will force her to do the same negotiation she has done to Marilou’s case?” said Abeto, a senior action officer of the Pusong Mamon Task Force, a group helping distressed Filipinos in the Kingdom.
“If this is so, advocates like me should start organizing a daily protest and requests all our media friends to publish all the OFWs in death row.
“But how about those who have been raped and courageously fighting for their rights to bring her perpetrators under the guillotine and those whose culprits escaped already?” he said. (With reports by Dinan Arana in Dammam and Agencies)
