Fund-raiser on for OFW slated for beheading

Bishop Ramon Arguelles launched a fund-raising campaign the other day for a Filipino worker he said has been sentenced to die in Saudi Arabia for the killing of a Nepalese man.

The labor department said Primo Gasmen, 32, a production supervisor at a factory in the kingdom, has been sentenced to be beheaded in January 2003 for the 1998 killing of his Nepalese co-worker Khim Bahadur Gurung.

Arguelles said Filipino embassy officials negotiated with the victim’s family to accept $15,000 (about P780,000) in diyah or blood money, instead of the $100,000 (about P5.2 million) they had reportedly demanded.

"As we need all prayers and support of the various sectors in society, we also appeal for their kindness and sense of compassion by donating some of their earnings to spare (Gasmen) from death," he said at a press briefing at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Pasay City.

"Any amount will definitely mean a big thing to the Gasmens. A new hope. A new beginning. A new life. Indeed, a light at the end of the tunnel for the poor family of an OFW (overseas Filipino worker), heralded as the country’s modern-day hero," he added.

Gasmen, who hails from Alcala, Pangasinan, began working in Saudi Arabia in 1995, said Arguelles, chairman of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.

The commission is run by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

Barely three years at trading company Al Rajhl, Gasmen was promoted to supervisory level, until the tragedy occurred.

He has three children — Maynard, 10; May-Ann, eight; and Roselyn, seven.

Four other Filipinos are scheduled for execution in Saudi Arabia. They are Miguel Fernandez Jr., George Aldana, Antonio Alveza and Wilfredo Bautista, who were convicted for the murder of fellow OFW Jaime de la Cruz on Jan. 6, 2000. — Sandy Araneta, AFP