Should corrupt Filipino politicians like Martin Romualdez suffer the same fate?
Former Chinese Communist Party official Li Jianping was executed in December 2024 after being convicted in one of China’s largest corruption cases, involving more than 3 billion yuan, then estimated at about $421 million or roughly ₱26 billion based on the current dollar-to-peso exchange rate.
Li previously served as secretary of the Communist Party working committee of the Hohhot Economic and Technological Development Zone in Inner Mongolia.
The court found that Li and his accomplices illegally obtained more than 1.437 billion yuan from state-owned companies, misappropriated over 1.055 billion yuan in public funds and accepted more than 577 million yuan in bribes and other property.
Prosecutors said Li exploited his government positions to help individuals obtain construction contracts in exchange for payments. He was also found guilty of colluding with the head of an organized crime group and allowing the syndicate to carry out offenses involving demolition projects, land acquisitions and employment arrangements.
Li was sentenced to death in September 2022. The Inner Mongolia Higher People’s Court upheld the verdict after rejecting his appeal in August 2024.
China’s Supreme People’s Court later reviewed and approved the sentence, and Li was executed on Dec. 17, 2024. Authorities also stripped him of his political rights for life and confiscated all his personal assets.
The approximately ₱26 billion involved in the case is about 520 times higher than the ₱50 million threshold for plunder under Philippine law, where the maximum penalty is reclusion perpetua, along with perpetual disqualification from public office and forfeiture of ill-gotten wealth instead of capital punishment.
