The Last Wish

The Last Wish is a docudrama, based on official documents, about the Maga-Contemplacion case. Della Maga and Flor Contemplacion, two Filipino mothers, were attracted in the 1980s by the chance of getting work they could not find in their own country. As OCW's (Overseas Contract Workers) they left their families to do household work in Singapore. Instead of a better life, a tragic fate awaited them. Not only were they overcome with loneliness so far from home, they had also not reckoned with the oppressive power of a police state and the criminal indifference of their own government. When, one day in 1991, Della Maga was found dead, just like the child she was looking after, Flor Contemplacion was arrested by the police because she was the last one seen with Della. A court in Singapore sentenced Flor to death by hanging. For four years she pined away in jail, virtually forgotten by representatives of the Filipino consulate that did not offer her any legal defence. But when in early 1995 the date of her execution was fixed, protests started in the Philippines. The case became a cause célèbre that attracted international attention.