RP foreign minister resigns over Flor case

RP foreign minister resigns over Flor case

MANILA (Reuter): A tearful Philippine foreign minister
resigned yesterday, the latest and most prominent casualty in a
major domestic and diplomatic row over the execution of a
Filipina maid for double murder in Singapore.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Roberto Romulo, his voice choked
with emotion, told a news conference he hoped his departure would
help calm the furor over Flor Contemplacion, hailed at home as a
national martyr despite confessing to the murders.

The execution has caused the most serious rift between members
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since the
six-nation alliance, which also includes Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Thailand, was formed in 1967.

It has become a serious liability for President Fidel Ramos
ahead of legislative and local government elections on May 8.

Romulo, 56, said the opposition was using the Contemplacion
case to attack Ramos's three-year-old government.

"It has pained me deeply that all the achievements of your
administration have been so adversely affected by the controversy
surrounding the Maga-Contemplacion case," he told Ramos in his
letter of resignation.

"It is my desire now that the country will be able to see the
situation from a cooler and more objective perspective," he told
reporters in the Malacanang presidential palace.

Romulo's letter was dated April 3 but Ramos only announced
yesterday he was accepting it "with deep regret".

Labor and opposition groups have demanded Romulo's dismissal
since Contemplacion's March 17 execution for the 1991 murder of
fellow Filipina maid Delia Maga and Maga's four-year-old
Singaporean ward, Nicholas Huang.

An inquiry Ramos set up echoed the views of many Filipinos
when it concluded there was a "great possibility" Contemplacion
was innocent.

It described Singapore as a "police state" and said it was
possible Contemplacion has been tortured into confessing.

Singapore has offered to reopen its investigation if a neutral
panel of experts agrees with a Manila autopsy team which exhumed
Maga's corpse.

The Manila team said it was unlikely Contemplacion was strong
enough to have inflicted the injuries they found on Maga's body.

Medical examiners from Singapore and the United States are due
in Manila this week to conduct another examination of Maga's
remains.

Ramos has already ordered nine officials suspended, including
ambassador to Singapore Alicia Ramos, who is no relation, after
the Manila inquiry said they had not done enough to save
Contemplacion from the gallows.

He has also ordered the preparation of criminal charges
against them.

Contemplacion has in death become a symbol of the more than
four million Filipinos forced to find work overseas because wages
are so low at home and jobs so scarce.

Filipino migrant workers say they frequently face abuse from
employers, their rights trampled on by their host governments and
almost total neglect from aloof Filipino consular officials.

Singapore -- Page 11