Joselito Zapanta's mother rushed to hospital after learning of execution

The mother of overseas Filipino worker Joselito Zapanta was rushed to the hospital upon learning of his execution in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, five years after he was convicted for killing a Sudanese national.

According to OFW advocate Susan Ople, who broke the news to Zapanta's family after confirming it from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Mona Zapanta's blood pressure went up to 180/120 upon learning of her son's execution.

"Nanay Mona was still hopeful that Joselito would come home," said Ople, head of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, in a statement. "When I told her that her son is gone, she cried and wailed and suddenly lost consciousness."

As of posting time, Mona was still in the emergency room of a public hospital for medical treatment due to hypertension, Ople said.

"Let us give the family some time to privately mourn while tending to the medical needs of Nanay Mona, " Ople said.

Zapanta, 35 and a father of two, was executed early Tuesday afternoon (PHL time) in a public plaza in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He went to Saudi Arabia in 2008 to work as a tile-setter.

In 2009, Zapanta was arrested and sentenced to death for killing his Sudanese landlord after a heated altercation.

The Sudanese widow asked for a blood money amounting toSR 5 million or the equivalent of P50 million. This was later reduced to P48 million.

At the time he was beheaded, Zapanta's family, through the help of the Philippine government and some private donors, had raised P23 million, but the aggrieved family had insisted on the full amount.

Zapanta came from a poor family and has left behind two children, aged 13 and 11 years old. The Zapanta family hails from Bacolor, Pampanga.  —KBK, GMA News