WORLD
The three, two women and a man, were caught smuggling several kilos of heroin each into China in 2008.
China executed on Wednesday three Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking despite public appeals for clemency in the Philippines, days after Amnesty International slammed Beijing's sweeping use of the death penalty.
The three, two women and a man, were caught smuggling several kilos of heroin each into China in 2008.
Under Chinese law, the trafficking of at least 50 grams of any illicit drug is punishable by death.
"It is a sad day for us, up to the last minute we were doing everything we can to postpone the execution," Philippine vice-president Jejomar Binay said in a radio interview from Qatar.
He said he sent an appeal on Tuesday asking to keep the Filipinos alive while Manila investigated new evidence that could have proved the innocence of at least one or two of the three.
"The sad part is China did not grant our request and proceeded with the execution of the three Filipinos," said Binay, who flew to Beijing in February and gained a brief delay of the death sentences.
Elizabeth Batain, 38, was executed by lethal injection at a prison in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, 32, and Ramon Credo, 42, were executed in the port city of Xiamen.
The three were told on Wednesday morning that their sentences were to be carried out, Philippine officials said, and they were allowed visits by family members.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino said the recruiter of Ordinario-Villanueva, who said she did not know she was carrying drugs, had been identified and charges were being pursued.
In the Philippines, prayer vigils, Masses and rallies were held for the three. Around 10 million Filipinos, about 110th of the population, work overseas, and the billions of dollars they send home each year is key support of the poor nation's economy.
"The three of them were convicted for drug trafficking, but perhaps, they can also be considered victims -- victims of unscrupulous recruiters and drug traffickers, and victims of a society that could not provide for them enough gainful employment in their home country," Aquino said in a statement.
The three were the first Filipinos to be executed in China for drug trafficking, Philippine officials said. Around 200 more Filipinos are in Chinese jails for drug offences.
The families of two of the prisoners had sent open letters appealing for clemency, arguing they had been set up by drug syndicates, and a group representing overseas Filipinos said it may be harder to get clemency in other cases.
"We're afraid for our fellow countrymen overseas with similar cases, because governments around the world may no longer listen to our pleas," said Garry Martinez, chairperson of Migrante International.
China's foreign ministry said that drug trafficking was a serious offence and that justice had been served.
"This is an isolated criminal case. I do not want it to affect bilateral relations," said spokesperson Jiang Yu at a briefing on Tuesday, a sentiment Aquino echoed on Wednesday.
Despite competing claims over the resource-rich Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and criticism last year over the botched police handling of a hostage crisis in Manila that led to the deaths of Hong Kong tourists, bilateral relations between China and the Philippines have been relatively stable.
The executions come after Amnesty International again slammed China's human rights record and widespread use of the death sentence in its latest annual report on the issue.
China, with 55 offences still punishable by death, is now believed to execute far more people than the rest of the world combined, even though the nation does not release official statistics.
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