MANILA, Philippines - Two close relatives of jailed Filipino worker Cecilia Armia Alcaraz (a.k.a Nemencia Armia Panaglima) left for Taiwan on Thursday to assist in the appeal for her freedom.

Alcaraz's brother, Jesus Armia and her sister-in-law Leticia Jao, boarded a Cebu Pacific flight to Kaoshiung in southern Taiwan at around 4:30 p.m. where her appeal will be heard on Friday morning.

Rosalinda, Alcaraz's elder sister, told GMANews.TV that the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) shouldered the travel expenses of Armia and Jao, who will be staying in Taiwan for five days.

MECO is Manila's de-facto embassy in Taiwan where some 90,000 Filipino are employed. The Philippines has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan regarded by mainland China as its renegade province.

"Hopefully they could help in the appeal for my sister's freedom," Rosalinda said in an interview on Thursday.

Alcaraz, of Liliw town in Laguna province, was sentenced to die by firing squad last September 30, after the Kaohsiung District Court found her guilty of robbing and fatally stabbing Chiu Mai-yun in September 2007.

Rosalinda said she had not talked to her sister for weeks prior to her scheduled court hearing on Friday.

She said they are hopeful that her sister would be acquitted. "If ever she won't be freed, we are hoping at least for a commutation," she added.

Raul Rabe, MECO corporate secretary, earlier said that Taiwan's president rarely grants reprieves, commutations or executive clemency to death convicts as these were often given only during presidential inaugurations.

However, Rabe said there could be a possibility that Alcaraz might be spared from death due to the growing clamor for the abolition of capital punishment in Taiwan.

He said the last Filipino to be executed in Taiwan was Jonathan Burgos for killing and robbing a Taiwanese woman and her two children.

Alcaraz flew to Taiwan in 2005 to work as a domestic helper. When her contract expired she took on the name of her sister-in-law, "Nemencia Panaglima," and re-entered the country as an academic tutor.

Rosalinda told GMANews.TV that her sister got involved in the crime when two unnamed persons in Taiwan ordered her to dispose of Chiu Mai-yun's body in 2007, threatening to kill her if she did not comply.

"My sister could not hurt anyone. She has children. She is a good person," she said.

Meanwhile, Rosalinda stressed that overseas Filipino workers facing death sentence abroad would have a better chance of claiming freedom if they approach media and migrant advocacy groups instead of the Philippine government.

Rosalinda made the statement after an uncle of a beheaded OFW in Saudi Arabia expressed disappointment over the governments handling of his nephew's case.

Eleno Terojas, the uncle of beheaded Filipino worker Venancio Ladion, alias Jenifer Bidoya, said an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs told them to keep the situation under the media's radar so that the case would be resolved immediately.

Terojas noted, however, that instead of expediting the case, the DFA was even caught by surprise last Monday when news broke out that the 27-year-old native of Zamboanga Sibugay had already been beheaded in Saudi Arabia.

"We should really voice our concerns to the public. If we remain silent, nothing will happen," Rosalinda said. - GMANews.TV