Chargé d’ Affaires Ricardo Endaya of the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait yesterday said they would ask Ranario’s lawyers to talk to the counsel for the victim’s family about the offer of blood money.
"I told the lawyers to explore the possibility that we will give blood money if it is acceptable to the family. Last year, we offered but they refused so now we will offer a bigger amount of money" Endaya said on Vice President Noli de Castro’s radio program.
Ang importante maisalba ang buhay ni Marilou (What’s important is to save Marilou’s life)," Endaya stressed.
Endaya said the embassy first offered 10,000 Kuwaiti Dinar (about $34,000) to the victim’s family last year, but this was rejected. The victim’s family is engaged in real estate and construction businesses in Kuwait.
Asked about the increase in the blood money to be offered this time, Endaya said: "Ten times. It will be $340,000 (around P18 million)."
He admitted that the case against Ranario, whom he last saw during an oral argument before the Court of Appeals last Jan. 11, is strong because she admitted before the court to having killed her employer.
In seeking her acquittal, the defense argued before the court that Ranario was not assisted by a qualified Tagalog-speaking Arabic interpreter during the investigation.
According to Endaya, the embassy and Ranario’s lawyers will also request another medical team to study her medical condition because they challenged the findings of the court-appointed team led by the head of the University of Kuwait’s psychiatric department which concluded that Ranario was fit to stand trial.
"The hearing on the appeal was postponed for next month upon the request of our lawyer because we were not convinced with the findings of the medical team that was appointed by the court to examine Marilou’s medical condition," Endaya said.
He added the team was supposed to wait for Ranario’s medical records from Manila before submitting their findings to the court.
"We hope the court will listen to our lawyer to appoint a new medical team. We wanted to say hindi sila naging fair sa pag-assess ng medical condition ni Marilou (they were not fair in their assessment of Marilou’s medical condition)," he said.
Pedro Chan, executive director of the Department of Foreign Affairs Office of Migrant Workers Affairs, said DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo met with Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Philippines Bader Nasser Ali-Al-Houti last Wednesday at the DFA upon instruction of President Arroyo to convey the Philippine government’s concerns about Ranario’s case.
Chan said the Kuwaiti envoy vowed to cooperate with the DFA and convey the Philippines’ concerns to the Kuwaiti government.
Ali-Al-Houti also expressed willingness to give full attention to the case.
The DFA also asked the Senate to review the 1995 Migrant Workers Act to allow them to add funding in its future budget to allocate payment of blood money to save OFWs who face the death penalty in Middle Eastern countries.
Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Gilberto Asuque said blood money paid to the victims’ families usually comes from private sources since the DFA has no fund for this specific purpose and it is not included in the budgetary item of Legal Assistance Fund or the Assistance to Nationals (ATN) Fund that are provided under the Migrant Workers Act.
Asuque said Romulo told the Senate committee on finance during the DFA’s budget hearing on Wednesday that the Migrant Workers Act does not provide for the option of paying blood money.
The DFA is proposing a P5.2-billion budget for this year. The proposed 2006 budget represents an increase of 0.49 percent from its P4.9-billion budget in 2005.