Prayers urged to save Filipino from execution

DPA/Manila

Supporters of a Filipino convicted of drug trafficking in China offer candles as they hold a prayer vigil in Manila yesterday

The Philippine government yesterday urged Filipinos to pray for a miracle to save a 35-year-old national from being executed in China for drug trafficking. The man, whose identity has been withheld, was to be executed today in Guilin for smuggling 1.4 kilograms of heroin in 2008. “We are still hoping, we are still praying,” Raul Hernandez, spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, said. “The whole government, the whole nation is one with the family in praying that a miracle with happen.” The convict would be the fourth Filipino to be executed in China this year for smuggling drugs. China executed three Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking in March despite appeals for clemency.