SINGAPORE, March 16 -- A Philippines human rights lawyer says two last-minute witnesses flew to Singapore Thursday in hopes of winning a postponemennt of a Filipina maid's execution for murder. Flor Contemplacion, 42, is scheduled to hang in Singapore Friday morning for the 1991 murder of another Filipina maid and a 4-year-old Singapore boy.
The Singapore government yesterday rejected Philippines President Fidel Ramos' plea for a stay of execution, saying new evidence presented by lawyers contains nothing to suggest Contemplacion is innocent of the murders. 'We have filed the last petition for a stay of execution,' human rights lawyer Romeo Capulong told United Press International Thursday. 'We are expecting two more witnesses to arrive in Singapore at midnight tonight.' 'We will try for a delay up to the very last minute, but we feel at this minute, along with our Singapore law counterparts, that the chances of any delay are very, very slim.' One of the two witnesses headed for Singapore was Emilia Frenilla, a former Singapore-based maid who claims she overheard the deceased boy's father say he had killed the maid after the boy drowned in his bath during an epileptic seizure. The other witness, Virginia Parumog, claims Contemplacion had told her she saw the deceased boy's father strangle the other maid. Neither of the two are eyewitnesses and the testimonies of both women have already been rejected by the Singapore government. The drowned boy's doctor signed a statement saying the boy never showed any signs of epilepsy, and Contemplacion has already confessed to both murders, a government news release said Wednesday.
