Phl, China to ink prisoner pact

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government is set to forge a transfer of sentenced prisoners agreement (TSPA) with China, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

De Lima said the bilateral agreement is expected to be signed during President Aquino’s state visit to China at the end of this month.

“(We’ve) been trying to convince China to enter into a TSPA. This is the first time that they made a firm commitment. So we will start the talks, in view of the signing of the TSPA,” she revealed after last week’s visit to Beijing where she met her counterpart, China’s Justice Minister Madam Wu Aiying.

De Lima said they agreed that the TSPA would strengthen cooperation in judicial administration and the active implementation of existing agreements in judicial and legal matters between the two nations.

Both China and the Philippines have received the drafts of the agreement following talks that were initiated by both governments since September last year.

After signing into the TSPA, the Senate must concur with the agreement before it could be implemented. In that case, Filipinos on death row in China could opt to be transferred to the Philippines and just serve a life sentence of about 40 years at the longest.

The pact is expected to be relevant for the country following execution of three Filipinos for the capital crimes of drug smuggling in Xiamen and Shenzhen cities last March.

Most of the Filipinos sentenced to prison in China are on drug-related cases. On drug-related cases alone, 227 Filipinos are held, with at least 70 currently serving various categories of death sentences (death without reprieve, death with two-year reprieve) and life terms as defined by Chinese laws.

De Lima explained that the TSPA is a humanitarian agreement pursuant to the Strasbourg Convention in which the Philippines is a signatory, and which aims to assist the rehabilitation of sentenced individuals.

This agreement provides individuals who have been tried and convicted in a signatory country the option to serve the remaining portion of their sentences in their home country.

The country already has a TSPA with Thailand, Hong Kong and Spain, while a signed TSPA with Canada is to be submitted soon to the Senate by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

It was earlier implemented in the transfer of Spanish-Filipino Francisco “Paco” Larrañaga to a Spanish prison where he would serve the remainder of his life term for the guilty verdict handed by a Cebu court in connection with the rape and killing of sisters Jacqueline and Marijoy Chiong in 1997.