Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia will ask the President and the Vice President to assist the 28-year-old Bacoleña who is now serving a life sentence at the Ngam Wong Wan Central Women’s Institution in Bangkok, Thailand, for an unspecified crime.

Jeff Esperanzate, senior staff of the Sectoral Concerns Office of Bacolod City, said yesterday that the mayor will attach to his letter the resolution authored by Councilor Caesar Distrito that also requested the assistance of Vice President Jejomar Binay, presidential adviser for Overseas Filipino Workers Concerns, and the Department of Foreign Affairs for Flory May Talaban.

Talaban’s parents, Nede and Florentino had earlier appealed to Bacolod City and Negros Occidental officials to help them seek her release and to determine the reasons for her imprisonment.

Talaban, a Political Science graduate of the University of St. La Salle, Bacolod, flew to China in 2005, with Chona Jomilla to teach at the Becton International University in Guangzho, China.

Esperanzate said Talaban’s parents have already sent documents to concerned agencies in Manila that could extend assistance to Overseas Filipino Workers.

He said they have received reports that Talaban was used by her African employer as a drug courier and those involved in such cases are meted life imprisonment in Thailand.

Florentino Talaban said they had no communication from their daughter for almost two years after she left the country for China in 2005. They last heard from her after her birthday on May 2, 2009, he said.*CGS

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