Flor contemplacion biography examples

The Catholic Church, which wields considerable influence in the Philippines, condemned the execution. Regardless of her innocence or guilt, others took up Contemplacion as a rallying cry against the allegedly inhumane, abusive, and exploitive working conditions that many Filipino domestic workers and laborers faced abroad. A movie called The Flor Contemplacion Story was made in the Philippines to highlight this as well as the harsh punishment Filipino overseas workers face when they totally break down from their jobs.

This anger continued when a rather similar case arose only a few months later with Sarah Balabagan in the United Arab Emirates though Balabagan was not ultimately executed. Relations between Singapore and the Philippines chilled for several years after the execution. To counter domestic backlash, President Ramos recalled the Filipino ambassador to Singapore and many bilateral exchanges between both countries were cancelled.

As of March 9, , Flor's three children, Sandrex, Joel and Jun Jun, were sentenced to life imprisonment and fine of , pesos each for selling illegal drugs. Flor's husband, Efren, and his live-in partner, Violeta, remain in jail as they were arrested for drug pushing in Flor Contemplacion, a 42 year old Filipina maid, was convicted by a Singaporean court of killing another Filipina maid, Delia Maga and Nicholas Huang, the three year old Singaporean son of her employer on May 4th She had originally confessed to the murders.

It was, however, later claimed that she made the confession under duress and it has also been claimed that she was of doubtful sanity at the time they were committed, although this seems unlikely. She was hanged before dawn on Friday 17th March together with three male drug traffickers amidst scenes of unusually tight security. Eight policemen, including two armed with machine guns and wearing flak jackets, stood outside the prison gates with two dogs.

Police cars and motorcycles patrolled the street continuously, apparently to deter protests by the estimated 75, Filipinos working in Singapore. Anger swept the Philippines as the news of the execution broke.

Flor contemplacion biography examples

Leftist and feminist groups, human rights activists and the media denounced Singapore as a barbaric, tyrannical and totalitarian state with no respect for human rights. The Roman Catholic Church called Singapore a state without mercy. The execution caused a major diplomatic row between Singapore and the Philippines, after Singapore rejected an appeal from the Philippines President, Fidel Ramos.

There were protests outside the Singapore Embassy in Manila. Flor had said, on the eve of her execution, that she was ready to die after final pleas for clemency and a new trial had been rejected. The Philippine Foreign Secretary said that she had thanked Filipinos for their efforts in trying to save her, but had said that if the stay of execution will only delay the carrying out of her sentence, she preferred to have an early end to everyone's suffering instead.

Flor was visited in Changi prison daily by her children, a year-old son, a year-old daughter and year-old twin boys who had last seen their mother in , but her husband Efren didn't visit her because, "I could not bear to see her and not be able to touch her or embrace her after seven years". He had made an emotional appeal a week earlier for help in saving his wife.

She was informed of the date and the time of the hanging on the Tuesday 14th March before the execution, as is customary in Singapore and apparently took the news calmly. The Philippine government, had requested a stay of execution. Solicitor-General Raul Goco, in a letter to the Singapore government, asked for this "to put all doubts to rest before the case of Mrs Contemplacion comes to a final conclusion.

Philippine President Fidel Ramos had personally asked Singapore to postpone the execution until new evidence, testimony from another Filipino maid had been evaluated. But the Singapore government said it "carefully investigated this new evidence and found it to be untrue. At least two maids came forward during the week prior to the hanging to suggest that the little boy drowned during an epileptic fit in a bathtub and his father killed Mrs.

Maga and framed Flor in a fit of rage. One, Virginie Parumog said in an affidavit she was had shared a cell with Flor and had evidence of her innocence. In her affidavit Parumog said Flor told her that, "Della immediately phoned her employer about the incident. Her male employer immediately rushed home. Very angry, the employer strangled Della's neck.

The Home Ministry said Parumog claimed Contemplacion told her, that when visiting Della Maga the two maids had discovered Nicholas had drowned. Although Nicholas's father could not identify a suspect, the police learned about Flor Contemplacion through Maga's diary. The police interrogated Contemplacion, who then confessed the crime of murdering Maga and the child.

Contemplacion never renounced her confession, and the Philippine embassy in Singapore deemed her confession to be credible. She was then sentenced to death by hanging. Just before her execution, two Filipino witnesses claimed that Huang's father framed Contemplacion for the murders. They alleged that the father killed Maga in rage after finding his son to have accidentally drowned.

The son was an epileptic who was alleged to have an attack while in the bath tub of which Maga was not aware. The Singaporean court considered and rejected the testimony. The execution went ahead despite Philippines President Fidel Ramos 's personal plea to the Singaporean government to stop it. Aftermath Although President Ramos seemed initially resigned to the execution, he called Contemplacion a hero.

Ramos' wife came to receive the coffin at Manila 's airport. The President sent a wreath to Contemplacion's funeral and offered financial assistance to Contemplacion's children who were dependent on their mother's income from her work as a domestic worker. Contemplacion asserted that she was suffering from severe psychiatric issues at the time of the killings, and was not guilty of murder but was admitting to manslaughter.

Testimony from Doctor Terence Burke asserted that Contemplacion suffered from a form of epilepsy known as a partial complex seizure , which was a mental illness that significantly impaired her responsibility for her actions on the day in question. Doctor Burke also testified that her low IQ and lack of education meant it was highly unlikely that Contemplacion would have been able to fabricate the symptoms of epilepsy.

Raj argued that Contemplacion was simply suffering from a migraine on the day of the murders, adding that she had been examined previously by the consultant psychiatrist of Changi Prison hospital, Doctor Chan Khim Yew, and was determined to have no abnormality of the mind that would impair her mental reasoning abilities. DPP Raj also highlighted that Contemplacion had not mentioned hearing voices or having hallucinations in any of her statements to the police after her arrest nor to Doctor Chan Khim Yew during his psychiatric examinations, having first reported these issues during interviews with Doctor Burke after her conviction and only submitting them in her defence during her retrial, which lead the court to consider her claims as fabrications and an exaggeration of a mild headache.

DPP Raj further asserted that the evidence of Doctor Chan Khim Yew should take precedence over the testimony of Doctor Burke, as Contemplacion had first been examined by Doctor Chan Khim Yew a month after the murders and he had kept her under observation over 18 months throughout her detention in remand prison , whereas Doctor Burke had only had 4 interviews with her after she had been convicted.

Doctor Chan Khim Yew also had years of previous experience on examining patients and then giving evidence on the issue of diminished responsibility , where as Doctor Burke had never testified on a case regarding diminished responsibility before, the DPP added. After deliberation, the judge rejected Contemplacion's testimony and confirmed her earlier death sentence, [ 1 ] ruling that she did not suffer from any serious mental illness at the time of the double homicide, that she only displayed symptoms of a mild migraine, and that she had consciously and deliberately murdered both victims.

The fact that both women had argued over the size of the package Maga refused to take with her to the Philippines on Contemplacion's behalf was attributed as a more likely motive for the fatal attack, according to the judge. Sinnathuray also highlighted that both Doctor Burke and Doctor Chan Khim Yew had agreed that a person suffering a partial complex seizure would have no recollection of the events that occurred during the episode, where as Contemplacion had given a vivid and detailed step by step account of what happened in Della's flat on the day of the murders, therefore her testimony satisfied him beyond reasonable doubt that she did not suffer from partial complex seizure at that time.

The judge likewise dismissed claims that Contemplacion was unintelligent, as having witnessed her nimble performance during cross examination over several days he considered her a wilful and cunning person. On 19 September , Contemplacion's appeal against her conviction was rejected by Singapore's Court of Criminal Appeal. Defence lawyer Sant Singh argued that while the circumstances of the double murder she was convicted of were not in dispute, the original trial judge had erred in ruling the symptoms described by Contemplacion as a mild migraine rather than temporal lobe epilepsy, which was a core element in her pleading guilty by diminished responsibility.

Although Doctor Chan Khim Yew had previously raised the fact that Contemplacion had not exhibited any unusual behaviour to her employers during the 3 years she worked for them, the defence asserted that they would only be able to observe her during evenings and weekends and therefore never had the chance to properly scrutinize her psychological condition.

Defence lawyers also stated that Doctor Chan Khim Yew's observations were irrelevant to Contemplacion's mental state on the day of the murders as they took place after the fact. The Appeal Court judges rejected all defence arguments, highlighting how Doctor Chan Khim Yew had observed Contemplacion's behaviour over 18 months while she was on remand and had ample time to diagnose any psychiatric issues.

The court also gave credence to her faultless work history as evidence she was not suffering from any serious illness, as she was trusted to look after young children while living in the same house as her employers, who would have easily spotted Contemplacion having epileptic fits on a near monthly basis as she claimed. The original trial judge was also deemed to have correctly considered the calculated shrewdness of Contemplacion's actions inside the flat on the day of the murders as evidence of a lack of mental abnormality on her part, as well as her alert and quick thinking performance while under cross examination being proof she was in fact a cunning and intelligent person.

I think why I did this stupid thing, each and every day I ask myself. Philippines President Fidel V. Ramos wrote to Singapore President Ong Teng Cheong twice, once to grant clemency to Contemplacion and the other to delay execution to evaluate purported new evidence which had surfaced. In the days leading up to the scheduled execution, Filipina maid Emilia Frenilla, who had previously worked for Huang's uncle, submitted a sworn statement to the Singaporean Embassy in Manila , claiming: [ 29 ] [ 28 ] [ 30 ].

However, after an investigation Singaporean authorities disregarded the new evidence, citing factual errors such as: [ 32 ]. Also, the fact that after her arrest Contemplacion revealed to police the location of luxury items she had stolen from Maga provided strong circumstantial evidence that she was linked to the murders. Shortly after midnight on the morning of the scheduled execution, Filipina citizen Virginia Custodio Parumog, who in had shared a prison cell with Contemplacion in Changi Prison while serving a custodial sentence for prostitution , returned to Singapore via commercial airline [ 33 ] [ 34 ] and then attempted to submit an affidavit to Singaporean authorities containing claims such as: [ 35 ].

Sister Gerard Fernandez a Good Shepherd nun accompanied Contemplacion on her final walk to the gallows , where they both sang the hymn Amazing Grace. Sister Gerard later described Contemplacion as being calm and at peace in her final moments. Just before dawn on the morning of 17 March , Flor Contemplacion was hanged at Changi Prison [ 38 ] [ 39 ] [ 34 ] alongside three men convicted of drug trafficking.

Many Filipinos believed that Contemplacion was innocent or at least insane, blaming the Singaporean government for a "lack of compassion", and the Philippine government for "not doing enough" to stop the execution. The Philippine Embassy in Singapore in particular was heavily criticised, since it did little to help Contemplacion during the two years she was on remand, apart from delivering food and books to her in prison, and did not even have a consular representative as an observer in court throughout her trial.

However, shortly after Contemplacion's execution the Philippines' former consul general in Singapore Elizabeth Buensuceso said that Contemplacion had disregarded the Embassy's warning not to make any admissions to the police until after she got proper legal representation in place. Although President Ramos seemed initially resigned to the execution, he called Contemplacion a heroine.

Contemplacion's body was carried from the airport to San Pablo, and thousands of Filipinos lined the route. There were several protests held across the Philippines over Contemplacion's execution, some of which were organized by politicians and labor organizations. Thousands of Singapore flags were burned in the protests. Several threats against Singaporeans and Singapore properties in the Philippines were reported.

Singaporean tourists either shortened or canceled their holiday trips in the Philippines in view of their safety. Skilled Singaporean workers working in the Philippines either left the country or were recalled back to Singapore by their companies. The Alex Boncayao Brigade , a Filipino assassination unit of the Philippine New People's Army , had threatened to kill Filipino officials and diplomats if they fail to stop Contemplacion's execution.

A Presidential Fact Finding Commission was setup in the Philippines to investigate Contemplacion's case and the findings were submitted to President Ramos on 6 April The first autopsy done by Singaporean pathologists concluded that Maga died of asphyxia due to strangulation which was disputed by the Philippines' National Bureau of Investigation experts.

If the findings determined that Maga did not die of asphyxia, the Singapore government will reopen Contemplacion's case and re-investigate the deaths of Maga and Huang. In April , a Presidential Fact Finding Commission was set up by President Ramos to investigate the facts surrounding the death of Delia Maga and the conviction of Flor Contemplacion for her murder.

The Singaporean government described the findings as "totally absurd" and based on uncorroborated hearsay testimonies of individuals who did not witness the crime itself, [ 63 ] and later released its own point by point rebuttal of the findings, such as: [ 58 ]. A police raid on the Barangay San Diego house that Romulo and three other men were hiding in recovered firearms and hand grenades believed to be linked to the attacks.

In Singapore, the Flor Contemplacion murders was also one of the cases solved by Professor Chao Tzee Cheng , the senior forensic pathologist. It was later re-enacted by the Singaporean crime show Whispers of the Dead in The perpetrator Flor Contemplacion and her two victims Nicholas Huang and Della Maga had their names changed for dramatic purposes and to protect their identities, although the overall turn of events and trial proceedings remained reminiscent of the real life events.

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