A total of 83 Filipinos are awaiting their fate on death row in various countries abroad.

This was learned by members of the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs (OWA) as they held a public hearing with Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) officials on Thursday, March 2.

DFA Assistant Secretary Paul Raymund Cortez said that of the figure, 56 Filipino death row convicts are in Malaysia. More than half or 30 of them were sentenced to death due to murder charges, while 18 had drug-related charges.

The Unified Arab Emirates (UAE) has six Filipinos on death row, while there are five in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

There are 15 Filipino inmates awaiting the death penalty in the United States (US), China, Japan, Vietnam, Brunei, and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has one Filipino on death row, and she is perhaps the most famous one--Mary Jane Veloso.

Veloso was supposed to be executed back in 2015 for drug trafficking, a charge that was lodged against her five years prior. She was granted a last-minute stay of her execution after authorities saw her value as a witness against her human trafficker.

Former presidents the late Benigno S. Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte have reportedly asked clemency for her at some point when they were still in office.

Cortez told the OWA panel that there have been times the overseas Filipinos themselves refused to make their cases known to the Philippine embassies or the Philippine consulate since they've already become citizens of the host country.