S'pore-RP relations improve amid rift
S'pore-RP relations improve amid rift
By Cecil Morella
MANILA (AFP): A Singapore-Philippines autopsy on the remains of a murdered Filipina failed to reach a consensus on who killed her, but the joint effort itself is evidence that ties between the countries are on the mend, an analyst said yesterday.
The Philippines downgraded relations with Singapore following the hanging there of Filipina maid Flor Contemplacion for the murder of Delia Maga and her young Singapore charge, a murder Philippine medical examiners later said she could not have committed.
But Singaporean and American examiners, who conducted a new autopsy Wednesday with Philippine experts, upheld Singapore's original findings.
"There is no question that Flor Contemplacion could have done it," said Michael Baden, director of the Forensic Sciences Unit of the New York State Police who was brought into the case by Singapore.
Neither government has commented on the result of the joint examination, but Maga's remains are now expected to be examined by third-party experts in accordance with a prior agreement by the two governments. Singapore has said it would reopen the case if the third-party experts agreed with Manila.
"The issue will be prolonged, but I don't think this will remain on a crisis level," said Julius Caesar Parrenas of the Institute for International and Strategic Studies (IISS), a Manila-based think tank focused on regional issues.
"The issue has been overtaken by newer headlines. It will slide down in the priority of public attention in the next few weeks -- whatever the outcome," he told AFP.
He said the two countries were "trying very hard to keep relations on an even keel throughout the crisis," and that both were hopeful that the issue would eventually "blow over."
A powerful public backlash in the Philippines, where Contemplacion is now elevated to martyr status, brought bilateral ties to an all-time low with Manila downgrading its embassy and Singapore being forced to recall its own ambassador at Ramos' request.
The Philippines government also sacked and recalled diplomats for mishandling the case and Foreign Minister Roberto Romulo resigned under pressure.
Political science professor Alexander Magno of the state University of the Philippines wrote in the Manila Standard newspaper yesterday that Ramos' actions were meant to "protect his own political position" ahead of the May 8 congressional and local elections.
But Parrenas of IISS argued the controversy would not affect the outcome of the polls "because it is very hard to pin down the blame on anyone."
At issue at Wednesday's autopsy were Manila's assertions that Maga's ribs were fractured prior to death, and that the skull and ribs showed evidence she had been bludgeoned immediately before her death.
Singaporean experts maintained that damage and evidence uncovered by Philippines experts may have been due to decomposition, and they stood pat on the initial 1991 police autopsy that ruled Maga had been strangled.
The Filipino experts were unable to refute their Singapore counterparts' assertion that Maga's skull and shoulder blades suffered no fractures, and that she had suffered asphyxia due to strangulation.
The Philippine position was further undermined by the statements of the three American experts, brought over as consultants by Singapore, which fully supported the latter's findings.
A fact-finding body formed by Ramos to look into the Contemplacion-Maga case had argued that prior to the strangulation, Maga was attacked by somebody much stronger than she was -- probably a man skilled in martial arts.