Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 29) — A total of 81 overseas Filipinos are facing death penalty cases while 135 acquittals were secured in 2022, according to the latest data from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
But the agency assured the public that it is working hard and exhausting all diplomatic channels available “to ensure that no death penalty sentence is executed against any of our kababayans.”
The DFA said it overturned a death penalty on two Filipinos in Saudi Arabia in 2022 for having an illicit affair, reducing the sentence to nine years of imprisonment.
It said the 135 acquittals secured last year were higher than the 98 recorded in 2021.
“For the first half of 2022, most countries in Asia and the Middle East were still practicing strict COVID-19 control protocols,\” the DFA said.
\”Therefore, courts generally remained closed, and there was thus a general slowdown in the resolution of cases…Few of the Asian and Middle East countries practiced trials via teleconferencing,” it added.
The DFA data showed that 132 of the acquittals were recorded in the Middle East region, two in Asia, and one in Africa.
“Most of the acquittals involved retaliatory cases filed against household service workers in the Middle East for theft, absconding, and breach of trust,” the DFA said.
The DFA also pointed out that many cases filed against Filipinos abroad are for crimes not necessarily viewed as offenses in the Philippines, such as immorality cases like giving birth out of wedlock.
“There is almost no chance for acquittals for these kinds of cases,” the department said.
The DFA said it has also successfully obtained 69 pardons to convicted Filipinos from host governments abroad in 2022. Many of the pardoned cases were for drug trafficking, prostitution, and theft.
