When Delia Maga, a Filipino maid, was found strangled, and the three-year-old son of her Singaporean employer was found drowned in Singapore in May, 1991, police arrested Flor Contemplacion, 42, another Filipino maid working for the same employer.
Flor confessed to the two murders and was hanged before dawn on Friday, March 17th, 1995, at Changi Prison, together with three drug traffickers, two of them Thai and one Malaysian.
Anger swept through the ranks of the 75,000 Filipinos working in Singapore when news of the execution broke. Leftist and feminist groups, human rights activists and the media denounced Singapore as a barbaric, tyrannical and totalitarian state, claiming that the confession was made under duress and that Flors sanity was in question at the time of the murders. The Roman Catholic church called Singapore a state without mercy.
When the Singapore Government refused a stay of execution request from the Philippine Government Flor was said to be resigned to her fate. She tried to be strong and told her four children to be strong and love one another, said a statement.