Two Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking in China were executed in late November, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced Saturday.

The DFA confirmed the two were put to death on 24 November, citing the report of the Philippine Consulate General in Guangzhou, but said the department held off on making an immediate announcement pending receipt of the Chinese governments formal execution notification.

The two Filipinos were arrested in 2013 and sentenced to death in 2016.

"We offer our most sincere condolences to their families and loved ones. We respect the wishes of their families for privacy, and as such are withholding the identities of the two Filipinos," the DFA said.

The Philippine government, through the DFA, had provided assistance, including legal assistance funding, through the Philippine Consulate General in Guangzhou and the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs ever since the cases were filed 10 years ago, it said.

The Philippines, it added, exhausted all measures available to appeal to the Chinese authorities to commute their sentences to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds.

There were also high-level political representations over the matter, according to the DFA. The families of the two were also assisted in their compassionate visit to Guangzhou through the DFA's Assistance to Nationals Fund.

The DFA asserted that the Philippine government' appeals "were consistent with the laws and values of our nation, which put the highest premium on human life."

However, the department said it respect China's internal criminal laws and legal processes in upholding the conviction.

Be vigilant

The DFA advised Filipinos planning to go overseas to be on high alert for drug syndicates who use "unwitting travelers as drug mules."

"Illegal drugs trade remains a scourge that we as a nation must confront. Drug syndicates claim as their victims not only drug addicts but Filipinos whose socio-economic conditions render them vulnerable to the lure of these criminals," the DFA said.

There are 92 death penalty cases involving Filipinos in China.

Of the total, two cases were commuted to life in prison, 86 have had their sentences lowered to fixed terms and four were pending death penalty cases.

Following the latest execution, two death penalty cases are still pending final review or appeal.

In 2011, four Filipinos were put to death in separate Chinese cities over drug offenses, despite pleadings from the Philippines.

In 2013, two Filipinos from China traveling to another country were apprehended in Guangdong for carrying methamphetamine with a combined weight of 11.872 kilograms found in their individual luggage hidden in DVD machine players.

They were sentenced to death for drug smuggling in 2016 after a series of court trials. The case was appealed in 2017 before the High People's Court of the Chinese province, which upheld the verdict in 2018.

The DFA said they continuously exhaust all measures to appeal to the Chinese authorities for commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds.

Mary Jane Veloso, who was supposed to be executed in April 2015 but was spared at the last minute to testify against recruiters who had allegedly tricked her into drug trafficking, is the most high-profile case of Filipinos now awaiting execution in foreign jails.

Two former presidents, Noynoy Aquino and Rodrigo Duterte, lobbied for Veloso's release from prison after she was detained in Indonesia in 2010 following the discovery of 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her suitcase, to no avail.