MANILA, Philippines - Cecilia Alcaraz would no longer face the firing squad over the killing of her employer after the Taiwanese court commuted her death sentence to life.
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ed Malaya confirmed to GMANews.TV that Taiwan's court commuted the 2007 decision on Sunday.
Last September 30, the Kaoshiung district court sentenced Alcaraz to death for robbing and murdering Chiu Mei-yun (English name: Anita), a broker for English teachers in Taiwan.
According to documents sent by MECO to GMANews.TV, the Taiwanese court found the Filipino academic tutor guilty of murdering Chiu in 2007.
Despite the decision, Migrante International still lamented the current situation of Alcaraz – a 47-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who left for Taiwan in 2005 as an English tutor – and admitted the imprisoned teacher deserved better.
A Taiwanese lower court sentenced Alcaraz – alias Nemencia Armia – to death through firing squad for robbery and murder of her employer Jum Mei Yung in September 12, 2007.
Migrante chairman Gary Martinez said had the Philippine government not sat on Alcarz’s case, the embattled OFW should have not been sent to jail in the first place.
Martinez maintained that Alcaraz was only forced to admit to the crime because her life was being threatened.
Alcaraz had said in earlier reports that two Taiwanese were the real killers.
At the same time, some 30 Migrante members trooped Monday morning to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) office along Roxas Boulevard in Manila to urge the government to work out Alcaraz’s freedom.
Alcaraz is a single parent with four children, who left her job as merchandiser for Robinson's Department Store as the pay was not enough to provide for her family's needs.
Alcaraz had been appealing to the government to help her, saying she did not want to suffer the same fate as her fellow OFW Jenifer Bidoya, beheaded in Saudi Arabia last year for murder. - with MARK JOSEPH H. UBALDE, GMANews.TV
FOR LIFE. Relatives of Filipino workers in deathrow urge the government to help save the lives of their loved ones abroad. photo by Mark Joseph