The family of Rodelio “Don Don” Lanuza hired New York-based
lawyer Loida Lewis as part of their untiring efforts to save him from
execution. Currently, he's detained at the Dammam Central Jail.
The victim’s family granted a pardon to Lanuza in February
2011 in exchange for blood money which, according to the Daily Inquirer,
amounts to SR3 million.
“Ambassador Villamor confirmed to me last Friday by
telephone that he was in the final stages of forming a small delegation to come
to Saudi Arabia to settle the blood money payment,” John Leonard Monterona,
Migrante Middle East regional coordinator, told Arab News on Wednesday.
Monterona said Villamor was hoping to sign a blood-money
agreement with the victim’s family and that he was invited as part of the
delegation.
Monterona had earlier suggested Villamor be used by the
Philippines’ government to help in dealing with cases of Filipinos on death row
in Saudi Arabia, particularly in negotiating with victims’ families.
“Villamor was instrumental in saving Sarah Dematera from
execution for killing her employer in 1992. She was spared execution when the
aggrieved family showed mercy to her in exchange for blood money amounting to
SR2.5 million,” Monterona said.
In 2010, Villamor was also involved in rescuing Idan Tejano
and Marjanna Sakilan who were also convicted of killing their pregnant employer
on May 21, 2001. Tejano is from Batangas province, south of Manila, and Sakilan
from Jolo, Sulu, in southern Philippines.
Tejano and Sakilan were sentenced by the Jeddah Shariah
court to death in May 2004 after they were convicted of robbing their employer
and killing her.
But their sentence was suspended because a daughter of the
victim was still a minor. Under Saudi law, the family members of the victim
must have a say in determining the nature of the punishment and this can be
done only when they are adult (18 and above).
In the meantime, they were put in prison and actually served
eight years and seven months of their 12-year sentence by the time the Saudi
Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) informed Villamor, who was then
Philippine ambassador to Saudi Arabia, of their release. Aside from
imprisonment, they also received 1,200 lashes.
