RSSA construction worker is appealing for government aid for his son who has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for killing and stealing.
“I have spoken with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other government officials, but it seems nothing is being done,” Jesus Zapanta told UCA News.
His son, Joselito Zapanta, went to Riyadh in October 2008 to work as a tile setter. Migrante (migrant) party says that his employer did not pay his salary for six months so he left and survived on part-time jobs.
He phoned his family in May last year to say he would could send only a little money for his two young children.
The next the family heard was in June when a friend told them Zapanta had been badly beaten by his Sudanese landlord who had died in the dispute while trying to collect rent.
Zapanta, 31, was sentenced to death on April 13, for killing and stealing from his Sudanese landlord.
“He claimed he fought to defend himself,” Jesus Zapanta told UCA News.
The Philippines government had assigned lawyers in both Manila and Riyadh to the case.
But the elder Zapanta says the lawyer in Manila “seems not to have much information about the case and depends on another DFA lawyer in Riyadh who hasn’t been in touch.”
“I want the government to help me raise funds to pay blood money if that will save my son from execution,” Zapanta said.
At the least he hopes the sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. said the Philippine government had filed an appeal for Zapanta’s clemency.
The government is “working quietly” and refraining from public discussion while the negotiations are in progress.
PL09837/1603 May 26, 2010 (318 words)
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