Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay gets a big fat media-exposure-building presidential high five for "successfully securing a reprieve for the three Filipinos facing execution in China". This is a pat on the back for an "achievement" that at best hopes that "the Chinese government would eventually grant the appeal that their sentence be commuted to a penalty lesser than death".China postponed the execution of three Filipinos found guilty of drug smuggling after Binay met with Chinese leaders in Beijing. Binay traveled to Beijing to make a last-ditch plea for the three Filipinos.
Binay said the Supreme People’s Court postponed the execution "within the scope of Chinese law."
Perhaps this is best seen from the perspective of who is the real winner in this latest of songs-and-dances.
Consider:
USD 1000 (Cost of a plane ticket Manila-Beijing-Manila)
Three. (Number of Filipinos "saved")
Convicted criminals (Nature of Filipinos "saved")
50% (Optimistic probability said people will be "saved")
Zero (Number of law-abiding Filipino lives impacted by this issue)
Clearly, the return-on-investment (ROI) on this little Beijing adventure of Vice President Binay isn't there. The overall added-value to Filipinos as a whole may even be in the negative if we consider speculations about what the Philippines brings to the poker table.
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