Taking issue with Flor Contemplacion

The film review Flor Contemplacion story flawed but still respectable (May 18, 2001) by Mr. Joko E.H. Anwar had inaccuracies which we wish to clarify.

Ms. Flor Contemplacion was not "wrongly hanged for murder in Singapore", but was given due process in the Singapore courts. Neither was Ms. Contemplacion coerced into admitting that charges after being put through a "torture session allegedly conducted by Singaporean authorities". She had voluntarily admitted in statements made to the Police -- in the presence of a Labor Officer from the Philippines Embassy -- to both murders. She was also given free legal counsel, and officials from the Philippines Embassy in Singapore met her regularly.

From the time of her arrest by police until her petition for clemency to the president of Singapore, spanning a period of four years, Ms. Contemplacion was visited nine times by Philippines Embassy officials and 68 times by a nun, but at no time did she express her innocence or claim that she was framed or ill treated.

WILLIAM TAN

First Secretary

Singapore Embassy

Jakarta