Friday, April 4, 2008

On saving murderers

Once again we are faced with an overseas Filipino worker awaiting the gallows, a media and public that's all too willing to portray her as the victim, and a government that's bending over backwards and spending ridiculous resources to save her life.

Here's a summary of the latest episode: The Kuwaiti Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty against May Vecina, 28, a Filipina who is set to be hanged for murdering her employer's youngest son, as well as attempting to kill her employer's two other children.

First of all, to the Filipino people: Stop pretending that this is an innocent victim (or, God forbid, an iconic heroine). She murdered a 6 year-old boy. She attempted to murder an 11 year-old boy and a 17 year-old girl. Her excuse, which is utterly lame and not much of an excuse at all, is that her employers insulted her. As an opponent of the death penalty I do not want to see anyone hanged, but of all the people who have done anything to deserve my sympathy, she ranks somewhere near the bottom.

Second, to the government: You need to get your priorities in order. When another OFW was in a similar sticky situation a few months ago, the President and the Vice President made separate trips to Kuwait to appeal for her life. There are so many better ways to spend your time and money, and so many millions more hard working and law-abiding Filipinos to spend it on.

Third, and most importantly, allow me to put forward a radical piece of advice to overseas Filipino workers: Do not kill your employers. I don't care if you were abused, insulted, overworked, beaten, exhausted, or raped. Maybe, just maybe, if May Vecina was not a murderer she would not be on death row.

1 comment:

  1. I agree, why did May Vecina have to kill the 6 year old boy, that didn't have anything to do. child murderers are the lowest of the low. to kill is a crime, to kill a child is immoral.

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