Third opinion sought on autopsy of Filipina maid

Third opinion sought on autopsy of Filipina maid

MANILA (AFP): The Philippines said yesterday it will push for
a third-party opinion on the cause of death of a Filipina maid
whose 1991 murder is at the root of an ongoing diplomatic rift
with Singapore.

Manila downgraded relations with Singapore following the
hanging there last month of 42-year-old Filipina maid Flor
Contemplacion for the murder of compatriot Delia Maga and her
young Singapore charge, crimes which 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.

Filipino forensics experts who exhumed the corpse for a second
autopsy earlier this month stood by their contrary opinion.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo, who will be
leaving his post at the end of the month after taking
responsibility for Manila's failure to save Contemplacion, told
reporters he would be discussing with President Fidel Ramos the
government's next move.

"The next step clearly is a neutral third party," he said,
adding that he expected to discuss it with his Singapore
counterpart.

There was no immediate reaction from Singapore, but Romulo
said the two governments have agreed in principle to turn to
third parties in case of a deadlock. Singapore has said it would
reopen the case if the third-party experts agreed with Manila.

"We have to come to an agreement on the venue and as to who
will constitute the third party," Romulo said, adding that "in
principle" it would have to be done on neutral ground.

"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 which focuses 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.

Aside from Romulo, the Philippine government also sacked and
recalled diplomats for mishandling the case.

"There is no question that Flor Contemplacion could have done
it," Michael Baden, director of the Forensic Sciences Unit of the
New York State Police, said. He is one of three U.S. experts
brought into the case by Singapore.

But Romulo said "it's clearly understood" that the Americans'
opinion was made on the basis of their being Singapore advisers,
and that they "would not be part of the neutral third party"
experts.

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 were due to decomposition, or
occurred after death, and they stood pat on the initial 1991
police autopsy that ruled Maga had been strangled.