The Department of Labor and Employment said on Monday that it is exerting all efforts to save the life of overseas Filipino worker Elpidio Lano who was sentenced to death for killing a fellow Filipino worker in Kuwait, even as the department appealed to the victim’s family to forgive Lano and accept the “blood money” being offered.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said he has appealed to the family of Nilo Macaranas to forgive Lano who is on death row in Kuwait.
Bello met with the wife of Macaranas, an engineer whom Lano allegedly stabbed to death two years ago.
Under the Kuwait judicial system, Lano can escape the death sentence if he pays the required amount to the victim’s family.
“I have already talked with Mrs. Macaranas. I told her that maybe, she can find it in her heart to forgive Lano,” Bello said.
He added: “It’s now up to her and their family to decide kung mapapatawad nila si Lano and accept the offer of blood money.”
However, the DoLE did not say how much the family is asking as “blood money”.
“I’m still hoping for the best for Lano. Hopefully, we can get at least a commutation of his death sentence, or better yet, his freedom,” Bello also said.
In 2014, Lano was arrested after he was accused of killing Macaranas. He was sentenced to death by hanging by the Kuwait Court of First Instance. The court, however, has yet to set the execution.
Lano’s case resurfaced following the hanging last month of Jakatia Pawa, a household service worker sentenced for the killing in 2007 of her employer’s 22-year-old daughter. Pawa allegedly stabbed the victim several times with a kitchen knife while the latter was sleeping. Pawa professed innocence until the time of her death.
The schedule of Pawa’s execution, however, was so abrupt that the government and her family were notified a day before she was hanged on January 25.