RP pledges support to drug suspect

RP pledges support to drug suspect

MANILA (DPA): The Philippine government pledged on Wednesday to provide full legal and financial assistance to a 32-year-old Filipina facing the possibility of a death penalty in Singapore for drug possession charges.

Presidential spokesman Jerry Barican said Sally Tigue, an over-staying tourist who has admitted keeping drugs in an apartment she shared with her Singaporean boyfriend, will be treated as an overseas Filipina worker.

The government is hoping to prevent a repeat of the execution of a Filipina maid for murder in 1995, which soured relations between the Philippines and Singapore after the city-state ignored appeals for clemency or a reinvestigation of the case.

Tigue and her Singaporean boyfriend were arrested Nov. 27 at their apartment, where police seized 456.18 grams of metamphetamine hydrochloride or "ice" and paraphernalia used for concocting different types of the narcotic.