Ramos to ask Singapore to reopen case
Ramos to ask Singapore to reopen case
MANILA (AFP): President Fidel Ramos yesterday suspended an ambassador and fired another for allegedly failing to help Flor Contemplacion, the Filipina maid executed in Singapore on March 17, and said he would ask Singapore to reopen her case.
A cabinet meeting was being held late yesterday at which Ramos said he would decide the fate of two cabinet members -- including Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo -- who have also been accused of neglecting Contemplacion's fate.
But the president's press secretary Jesus Sison, later said Ramos' decision would not be announced until today or tomorrow.
Ramos however stopped short of carrying out an earlier threat to sever ties with Singapore if a special investigative panel he set up found Contemplacion to have been wrongfully hanged.
In its report released Saturday, the commission concluded that Contemplacion was "a victim of injustice" and charged that Philippine diplomats in Singapore did not do enough to help her.
Ramos, speaking at a nationally televised news conference, suspended the ambassador to Singapore, Alicia Ramos (no relation), along with seven other Singapore-based diplomats for "neglect of duty, inefficiency and incompetence in the performance of official functions."
He also accepted the resignation of Alicia Ramos' predecessor in Singapore, Francisco Benedicto, a political appointee who is now ambassador to Seoul.
The office of the Ombudsman has been asked to "consider criminal prosecution" against these officials as well as two former administrators of the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration for alleged failure to assist Contemplacion, Ramos said.
A late-night cabinet meeting would decide the political fate of Romulo and Labor Secretary Nieves Confesor, he said.
Ramos said he would first invite two Singaporean forensic specialists to come to the Philippines to perform another autopsy on Delia Maga, one of the two people Contemplacion was convicted of killing.
"I will pursue such representations as may be necessary with the government of Singapore, for a joint and coordinated effort to reopen the investigation of the killing of Delia Maga," depending on the results of the suggested autopsy, Ramos said.
He had called the press conference to comment on the report of the special commission he created last month to investigate the case.
Contemplacion was hanged in Singapore for the 1991 murder of Maga and Maga's Singaporean charge, a four-year old boy.
Even though she made several admissions of guilt, many Filipinos insist she was innocent and was tortured into making a confession.
Massive protests have been staged in Manila against Singapore for alleged injustice, and the Ramos government -- facing congressional and local elections on May 8 -- has also come under fire.
The commission cited the testimony of a Filipino medical-legal investigator, that Maga's remains show she was killed by a powerful man, a finding that apparently contradicted the results of an autopsy in Singapore that led to Contemplacion's conviction.
The commission also virtually accused the wealthy island-state of using torture and drugs to force Contemplacion to admit to her guilt.
Singapore has insisted that Contemplacion's confession as well as their autopsy of Maga, show she was guilty and have said that the Filipino medical-legal investigator's findings are flawed.
Ramos said if another autopsy by the Singaporean experts still conflicted with the Philippines' findings, he would seek to have another autopsy conducted by a third party.
Alicia Ramos and the other diplomats were recalled to Manila last month when the furor over Contemplacion broke out, resulting in the downgrading of ties between Singapore and the Philippines.