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Venancio Ladion, alias Jennifer Bidoya, a 27-year-old OFW from Zamboanga-Sibugay, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia for killing a Saudi man who allegedly lured him to have sex with four other Saudi men.

News reports from Saudi Arabia said the murder happened May 2005 in the holy city of Makkah (Mecca), with the accused suffocating the victim and piercing his neck with a pen. Other reports say the man Bidoya killed was his employer named Rurkie Al-Zahrmae.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr. said that the 37 other active death penalty cases are currently in different stages of judicial proceedings.

Conejos said most of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are jailed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Brunei, China, Malaysia and the US.

The Foreign Affairs department said the death sentence on 26 other Filipinos have earlier been commuted. Of this number, 11 had returned home.

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