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By Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk Editor
The fate of Marilou Ranario, the overseas worker
who killed her Kuwaiti employer who tried to sell her off to two
men, will be known today.
Final judgment on Ranario by the Kuwaiti Court
of Cassation is expected by 3 p.m., Manila time. The Department of
Foreign Affairs corrected an earlier announcement that final
judgment will be made on December 27.
Ranario is a 35-year-old domestic helper from
Surigao del Norte. A mother of two, Ranario left a teaching job in
the Philippines in 2003 to work in Kuwait.
She was convicted for killing her employer,
Najat Mahmoud Faraj Mobarak, on January 11, 2005. Kuwait’s Court
of First Instance sentenced her to die by hanging eight months
later. Kuwait’s Court of Appeals upheld the sentence in February.
Prior to the murder, Ranario reported to her
family of that she was verbally and physically abused by her
employer, sources said.
Migrante, the militant federation of overseas
Filipino workers’ groups, has started the Bantay Hatol, a round
the clock monitoring for Ranario starting Monday, said Rina
Anastacio, Migrante national coordinator.
Anastacio said the Department of Foreign Affairs
has told them that the most likely scenario is for Ranario’s
sentence to be commuted to life.
She assailed a statement made by the office of
Vice-President Noli de Castro that Ranario’s case has been taken
cared of since she has been given a tanazul or pardon by her
employer’s family.
Anastacio said that from documents it gathered
from Foreign Affairs last Thursday, it turned out that the tanazul
was not complete since only the husband of Ranario’s female
employer gave it. The children apparently did not give their pardon,
which under Islamic law, is required for pardon.
Under Islamic law, the tanazul has to be given
by all members of the victim. The employers’ family has been paid
with blood money, but the Foreign Affairs officials have not
disclosed the amount.
On Thursday, Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait
Ricardo Endaya reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that
Kuwait’s 11-member Court of Cassation heard oral arguments on
Ranario’s appeal on November 13.
Two highly respected Kuwaiti defense
lawyers—Ahmad Qurban and Abdel Majid Khuraibet—argued
Ranario’s case at the instance of the Philippine government.
The government has so far provided Ranario five
seasoned and highly respected Kuwaiti lawyers to defend her, Endaya
added.
Representations to Kuwaiti authorities for
clemency have been made on Ranario’s behalf by President Gloria
Arroyo, Vice-President de Castro and Foreign Affairs Secretary
Alberto Romulo, the envoy said.
“Throughout her detention and the judicial
proceedings, from the Criminal Circuit Court to the Appellate Court
and the Court of Cassation, the Philippine government has spared no
effort to assist Ranario and her family,” Endaya said.
Philippine Embassy officers have regularly
visited and counseled her and attended court proceedings. The
government assisted Ranario’s parents in their travel to Kuwait in
April 2006 to visit her at the Sulaibiya Central Jail.
Ranario’s two children are provided counseling
by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and scholarship
by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Endaya added.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos
and Endaya are personally overseeing efforts to save the life of
Ranario, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
--With Francis Earl A. Cueto
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