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MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine government said Thursday it was surprised by the execution of a Filipino in Saudi Arabia, although it admitted that efforts to save his life through a settlement with the victim's family had failed.

Authorities said Reynaldo Cortez, 41, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. The Saudi Interior Ministry
said he was convicted of fatally stabbing a Pakistani man in the capital, Riyadh, during a conflict that erupted between them.

"We were surprised over the situation. It was only now that we learned of the execution," said Eduardo Ermita, the Cabinet's most senior member.

Cortez, a welder who left behind a wife and six children in the Philippines, was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to death two years later, according to the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department.

During the trial, he said he killed the Pakistani taxi driver to defend himself from rape, the department said.

Since then, the government had tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a settlement with the victim's family that would spare Cortez's life, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said.

He said the government had sent negotiating teams to Pakistan to ask relatives to accept «blood money,» but they refused. The practice of accepting payments in return for the pardon of a convicted criminal is common in the Muslim world.

He said 13 other Filipinos are on death row in the kingdom, out of a total of 34 worldwide.

More than 8 million Filipinos work abroad. Last year, they sent home a record US$12.8 billion (¤9.5 billion), fueling the local economy. (pr-inside.com)

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