Barely a month since the stay of execution of Mary Jane Veloso, Jennifer Dalquez from General Santos City was sentenced to death for killing her employer who tried to rape her.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Another Filipina was sentenced to death, this time, in the United Arab Emirates, barely a month since the stay of execution of Mary Jane Veloso.
Jennifer Dalquez, who hails from General Santos City, South Cotabato province, was convicted of killing her employer who attempted to rape her on Dec. 7, 2014. She was arrested five days later. On May 20, Dubai’s Al Ain trial court meted the death penalty.
She had been working in UAE since 2011.
An appeal would be automatically filed before their appellate court, said John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East and North Africa regional coordinator.
“They will kill her, but she is not guilty,” Dalquez’s distraught mother Rajima said in a television news report, appealing to everyone to help her daughter.
Philippine embassy and Department of Foreign Affairs officials, in a news report, said legal assistance was extended to the Filipina on death row.
But Monterona told Bulatlat.com that he doubts it because “it is a matter of Philippine government policy that hiring of local lawyer will be provided only during the appeal stage. This must be changed. We will bat for legal representation for all OFWs in jail even if their case is still at the lower court for trial.”
“We are alarmed that we have another kababayan on death row,” Mic Catuira, Migrante International deputy secretary general, told Bulatlat.com.
Catuira said that members of Migrante International and Gabriela attempted to visit Dalquez in jail, but were barred because they were not relatives of the Filipina on death row. The group will try to visit Dalquez in jail again to find out what really happened to her, Catuira said.
“Our chapter in General Santos is already looking for her relatives. We want to know if she was provided a lawyer from the very beginning,” Catuira said.
“We will exert all efforts to be of help to the doomed OFW. We would like to get first-hand information from her on the status of her case so that we can develop a campaign plan to ensure that all her rights and the legal processes are being followed,” Monterona said. 
