Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo called...

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo called for the execution of convicted members of kidnap-for-ransom gangs to rid the country of its image as Asia's "kidnap capital."
Arroyo's support for the death penalty marks a drastic change in her policy because she had until now frowned on the execution of convicts in this largely Christian country.
"She (Arroyo) asked that the death penalty on kidnappers be implemented," presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told reporters. "She instructed the Secretary of Justice to work on the speedy Supreme Court affirmation of death sentences against 95 death row cases involving kidnap for ransom convictions," Tiglao added.
Arroyo made her remarks at a lunch meeting with leaders of the Chinese-Filipino business community which has expressed alarm over increased kidnapping cases. Most of the victims have been rich ethnic Chinese businessmen.
Under Philippine law, all death sentences have to be reviewed by the Supreme Court.More than 1,850 criminals, mostly rapists and drug traffickers, have been sentenced to death by local courts since the Philippines restored capital punishment in 1994. Seven executions - by lethal injection - have since been carried out, but none since Arroyo took office in January 2001.
Official statistics list 94 reported kidnap cases in the first eight of months of 2001, a 12 percent rise from the same period in 2000. Most of the 107 victims have been freed upon payment of large ransoms, while nine were killed by their abductors and 19 remain in captivity.
But many kidnappings are never reported and the series of abductions has earned the Philippines the label of "Asia's kidnap capital."