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By Macon Ramos-Araneta | Posted 7 hours ago


At least 3,732 Filipinos have been languishing in jails in 53 countries, Senate President Pro Tempore  Ralph Recto said on Monday.

Of this number, 108 were in death row, with 69 in Chinese jails awaiting execution or clemency, Recto said.

DFA officials, however, gave a lower  estimate of 80 Filipinos in death row in seven countries, with 28 in China, when they testified before a House committee last week.

Recto said Malaysia hosted the most number of Filipinos behind bars, with 2,236, mostly immigration cases as the country had launched a crackdown against undocumented aliens.

Next to Malaysia  was China, including Hong Kong and Macau (345), followed by Saudi Arabia (277), USA (208), Italy (97), United Arab Emirates (75), Kuwait (72), Japan (59), Peru (37) and Qatar (34).

At least 476 of the Filipinos imprisoned abroad were female and 865 were male, Recto said.  The gender of the 2,391 was not indicated in the reports filed by the country’s 60 embassies and 20 consulates abroad.

It was the reports of these diplomatic posts which were later collated into a 732-page “Status of OFWs Report” which the Department of Foreign Affairs submitted to the Senate last June.