Thank you for listening to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service, with me, Josephine McDermott.

Today we're going back 28 years to a case which resonates to this day with Filipino people who work overseas.

The execution of Filipino maid, Floor Contemplation, in Singapore.

Her death led to protests, a government resignation, and a diplomatic crisis between the Philippines and Singapore.

Floor Contemplation's daughter and lawyer recall that time.

It's the 16th of March 1995, and Edra Alalia, a young lawyer, has won last chance to save a woman's life.

Floor Contemplation is scheduled to be executed for murder the next day.

Edra has flown out to Singapore with a woman called Virginia from the Philippines.

She says she can testify that her friend is innocent, that she was forced to confess.

They arrive at the gates of Chinese prison.

The walls were high, and there were steel bars, and there were guards, and there were a lot of media, both Filipino and foreign correspondents,

and there was a meeting by the gate, because they knew that there was a countdown to the execution.

It was eerie.

You can feel and smell that something was not right, even morbid.

It was a busy area, but you can hear a pin drop, because nobody knew how to react.

Knowing that, on the other end of the gate, there's this Filipino who's counting the hours before she's going to be hanged.

And she's alone.

But then, the Singaporean authorities refused to allow the last minute submission from Virginia.

Verdida was wailing at the gates. She was wailing.

She was saying, Mama Floor, Mama Floor, innocent is Mama Floor.

In English, she said, Mother Floor is innocent.

And that was the feeling of millions of Filipinos.

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