Ronaldo Z. Concha | Arab News
JEDDAH: Two Filipino women who were facing the death for killing a pregnant mother here in 2001 were sent home on Thursday, months after they were granted a royal pardon.
The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah said Idan Tejano and Noraisa Talib Mabanding were taken to King Abdulaziz International Airport on Thursday straight from the Briman Prison where they had been locked up for over eight years. Philippine Ambassador Antonio P. Villamor accompanied the two women on their way to board a Qatar Airways flight, Consul General Ezzedin Tago said on Friday.
Tejano is from Batangas province near Manila and Sakilan is from the southern island of Jolo, Sulu province. The Jeddah General Court sentenced Tejano and Sakilan to death after being found guilty of homicide and robbery in connection with the death of the pregnant wife of Tejano’s employer on May 21, 2001.
Records of the case showed that Tejano brought her friend Sakilan into her employer’s apartment, killed the pregnant victim and fled with her jewelry. The duo then sought refuge at the shelter for distressed Filipino workers inside the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah, claiming to be victims of abusive employers.
When the employer came home, he found his wife, an Egyptian, lying dead in a pool of blood. The woman’s eight-month old fetus was also dead.
Tejano caught the curiosity of everyone in the shelter when she became very generous and started giving away some of her loot, said consulate staff, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Police soon learned that the suspects were inside the shelter and when they came to search and arrest them they found more jewelry in Tejano’s luggage.
In May 2004, the Supreme Judicial Council upheld the death sentence, which prompted Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to make appeals on behalf of the accused. She sent the first of several appeals to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on July 23, 2005, requesting clemency for the two Filipino women.
According to Tago, a second letter from President Arroyo to King Abdullah was hand-delivered by DFA Undersecretary Rafael Seguis to the director general of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sequis said that after reconciliation talks the murdered woman’s family agreed to accept an unreported sum of money in blood money, which removed the death penalty.
“In April 2008, the heirs represented by the victim’s husband affirmed in court their forgiveness and declared that they do not object to release of the accused from jail. After the private rights aspect was resolved, the case went back to court for the decision on the public rights,” said Tago.
A press statement of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the diyah (blood money) was paid to the heirs of the victim, but no amount was mentioned.
Tago also refused to divulge any amount, but Arab News learned from a former embassy personnel that the Philippine government shelled out SR4 million riyals ($1,066,779), down from the original demand of SR6 million ($1.6 million).
With the private rights resolved, the death penalty was removed. At that point the two women still faced the public-right of serving 12 years and receiving 1,200 lashes for the violations of robbery with violence and other related crimes.
Arroyo sent a total of four appeal letters to King Abdullah to request clemency and immediate repatriation of the two women considering that they had already served over seven years.
On Jan. 13, the king signed the pardon of the two women, absolving them of the remaining time to their prison terms.
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