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Bienvenido Espino Jr., an overseas foreign worker, was tried by
Kuwait’s Court of First Instance for killing fellow Filipino
contract worker Jhias Gumapac, in October last year.
“Our deepest sympathy to the family of Jhias
Gumapac, however, we are also duty-bound to exhaust all means to
save Espino from the gallows who is also a Filipino national,”
said Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Ricardo Endaya in a statement
on Monday, after the court handed down the death verdict on Espino
for stabbing Gumapac to death on October 30 near a bakery in Salmiya.
Endaya vowed to look into all the legal remedies
to save Espino, the third overseas Filipino on the death row in
Kuwait for murder. The other two are Mae Vecina and Jakatia Pawa.
Gumapac, 30, then working as a barista for a
coffee shop, was stabbed 33 times over a laptop given to her as
collateral for money borrowed by Espino.
According to police reports, Gumapac and Espino
met on the evening of October 30 after the suspect agreed to redeem
the laptop from her. But when they met, Espino did not have the
money to pay for his loan. Gumapac refused to turn over the laptop
to him.
He told her he has a buyer for the laptop and
promised to pay her once it is sold. Gumapac refused and the
exchange allegedly prompted Espino to pull a knife to scare her,
ending up in a fight that led to her death.
-- Katrice R. Jalbuena
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