Philippines, Singapore Mend Fences

Trying to settle a lingering rift over a maid’s execution, the government said Friday it will lift a ban on sending maids to Singapore and will exchange ambassadors with the city-state.

Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said the governments will formally name ambassadors next week.

Government officials said the present Philippine envoy to Malaysia, Alberto Encomienda, will be appointed to Singapore. Filipino diplomatic sources identified the new Singaporean ambassador as Simon de Cruz.

In April 1995, President Fidel Ramos recalled then-ambassador Alicia Ramos after Singapore rejected his appeals to postpone the execution of Filipino maid Flor Contemplacion until a re-investigation of charges that she killed a fellow Filipino maid and a Singaporean boy.

Ramos also banned Filipino maids from going to Singapore and decreed that maids wanting to return to the Philippines be fetched by a military plane.

Singapore withdrew its own ambassador in response.

Thousands of Filipinos, believing Contemplacion innocent, joined protests that followed Singapore’s decision to execute her.