Blood money won't save 3 OFWs on Saudi death row

MANILA, Philippines - Three overseas Filipino workers sentenced to death for killing and robbing another Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia in 2008 are not qualified to pay tanazul (blood money) to the victim’s family, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

In a radio interview, DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. said that last April 6, Victorino Gaspar Jr., Paul Miquibas, and Edgardo Genetiano were found guilty of murder with robbery by the Jizan General Shari’ah Court (trial court), which said what they did was a heinous crime that disqualified them from tanazul.

They were sentenced to suffer the penalty of ta’azeeran qati (death which cannot be settled by payment of blood money).

An appeal was filed by the lawyer of the three Filipinos before the Jizan General Court last July 4 for the commutation of their sentence.

Conejos said the three workers’ lawyer told the court the three men did not kill Raymundo Dimaculangan, but “there was documentary evidence.”

The DFA said the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah is exhausting all legal remedies to help the three OFWs .

The Consulate General has also engaged the services of the law office of Abdullah Al Johani to represent Gaspar, Miquibas and Genetiano.