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.