A day after a Filipina was hanged in Kuwait after she was found guilty of murdering the 22-year-old daughter of her employer in 2007, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said on Thursday that another overseas Filipino worker faces the same fate in the emirate.
Bello, who was en route to Kuwait from Rome where he led a government panel in peace negotiations with communist rebels, told Manila Standard that OFW Elpidio Lano is on death row for killing a fellow Filipino in Kuwait in 2014.
“We will try to make an appeal. We are hoping to get a favorable response since the victim in this case is not a Kuwaiti national,” Bello said in a phone interview from Dubai.
“We are hoping to get a commutation [of sentence],” Bello added.
Lano was found guilty of stabbing to death his housemate, Filipino engineer Nilo Macaranas.
According to their landlady, Lano and his partner, a Filipina identified only as “Xylene,” had a quarrel on June 17.
Xylene reportedly wanted to break up with Lano after finding out he has another girlfriend. The suspect, on the other hand, became jealous of Macaranas, accusing him of texting his partner.
Bello said he will also take the time to visit the grave of Jakatia Pawa, who was hanged Wednesday afternoon in Kuwait.
Pawa, a native of Zamboanga del Norte, was accused of stabbing her employer’s daughter 28 times.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said the government has tried to negotiate with the family of Pawa’s supposed victim but they refused to accept blood money in exchange for the OFW’s life.
