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Friday, January 20, 2006
Mayor, Singapore bury hatchet of '95
By Nelson C. Bagaforo and Ben O. Tesiorna
AFTER more than 10 years, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte made amends with Singapore, admitting he had offended the government of his Asean neighbor when he led the burning of a Singaporean flag in front of the City Hall to protest the execution of Filipina domestic helper Flor Contemplacion in that country.
"I'm a Filipino. If you tinker with the symbol of my country, I would also be mad," he told delegates to Asean Tourism Forum attending the Asean Tourism Conference at the Apo View Hotel Wednesday.
"I'm looking forward to visit Singapore, but I hope I won't end up at Changi Prison," he jokingly said.
Contemplacion was detained and hanged at Changi Prison.
Duterte said the last time he went to Singapore was more than 20 years ago when he was still a prosecutor.
He was following up a case at that time.
If he was critical with Singapore's judicial system before, Duterte made a surprise remark in his extemporaneous speech when he said Singapore's judicial system is the "best, like other Asean countries, in the world."
"I don't have anything against the judicial system of Singapore. It's patterned after British judicial system and one of the best in the world," he said.
For his part, Singapore Tourism Board's deputy chair and chief executive Lim Neo Chian said that Duterte will be warmly welcomed if he decides to visit Singapore in the near future.
"He is very much welcome. We will give him a warm reception," Chian said.
Chian thanked Duterte for the warm reception Davao City has given the Singaporean team attending the Asean Tourism Forum in the city, saying this will be reciprocated once Duterte visits their country.
He said the flag burning incident is a thing of the past and they had already forgotten it.
Duterte burned a Singapore flag in front of the city hall in 1995 to protest what he called was an injustice not just on Flor Contemplacion and her family but to the entire Filipinos as well. Several burning of Singapore flags by militant groups all over the country followed.
Contemplacion, a 42-year-old Filipina maid, was convicted by a Singaporean court for killing another Filipina maid, Delia Maga, and Nicholas Huang, the three-year-old Singaporean son of her employer on May 4, 1991.
She had originally confessed to the murders. But it was claimed later that Contemplacion was forced to make such confession and that she was not in her right mind when she committed the crime. These two claims were not substantiated.
She was hanged by Darshan Singh, at around 6 a.m. on March 17, 1995 together with three male drug traffickers.
Anger swept the Philippines as the news of the execution broke. 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.
(January 20, 2006 issue)
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