MANILA, Philippines – Following the death of Overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Jakatia Pawa who was executed by hanging in Kuwait, several groups again urged the government not to revive the death penalty in the country.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), for instance, said on Thursday, January 26, that Pawa’s death “should make us all advocates against the death penalty.”

In a CBCP News article, Bishop Ruperto Santos of the CBCP’s Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People was also quoted as saying the government should not push through with death penalty because its reimposition will result [in] the country losing “any moral authority and legality to ask clemency for our Filipinos who are sentenced to death.”

Reacting to the CBCP, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella on Saturday, January 28, said that when it comes to seeking clemency for OFWs on death row, “we cannot claim ascendancy, but we can claim perhaps clemency and mercy depending on the merit of each case.”

“We understand where the CBCP is coming from. However, we also have to understand that certain countries, especially those in the Middle East, condemn certain alleged crimes. But we have to understand that they operate from a different set of rules,” Abella said in an interview with government-run radio dzRB.

He added: “They don’t go by Western civil law. They go by Shariah, for example. They have different procedures. We’re not saying we’re not going to fight for that. However, we cannot claim ascendancy, but we can claim perhaps clemency and mercy, depending on the merit of each case.”

Pawa, a 44-year-old mother of two, was executed on Wednesday, January 25, even as she asserted her innocence in the murder of her Kuwaiti employer’s 22-year-old daughter. Her execution caught the Philippines off guard.

Abella said the Philippines hired “top caliber lawyers” for Pawa’s case. (READ: Reviving death penalty risks OFWs on death row – lawmaker)

“Kaya lang talagang hindi talaga siya, mukhang ano talaga ‘yung kaso against her, seemed to be tilted against her, parang ganon. Pero hindi po tayo pabaya sa kapakanan ng ating mga kapwa Pilipino abroad,” he said during the interview.

(The case really seemed to be tilted against her. But we do not neglect the situation of our fellow Filipinos abroad.)

Restoring capital punishment for heinous crimes is a priority measure of the Duterte administration, whose ongoing war on drugs has killed more than 7,000 people in the last 6 months. – Rappler.com