The Philippine presidential office said Saturday it would seek a lesser penalty for a Filipino sentenced to death in Malaysia but warned the drug trafficking charges against him were serious.

"We shall continue to appeal the case and seek a lesser penalty but we must bear in mind that the charges are most serious and punishable by death even under our laws," President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

He was referring to seaman Nelson Tanoja Diana, 50, who was found guilty of trafficking in 508.6 grammes of cocaine earlier this week after being arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on August 22, 2002 while on his way from Amsterdam to Bangkok.

The death penalty is mandatory for drug trafficking in Malaysia. The sentence is carried out by hanging.

Legal assistance

The Philippine embassy in Kuala Lumpur would "exhaust all legal remedies," to help Diana, bringing the case to the Malaysian Court of Appeals, the government earlier said.

Bunye said the government had made sure Diana had proper legal assistance and due process was observed in his case.

The welfare of the eight million people working overseas is a politically-charged issue in the Philippines, which is highly dependent on the billions of dollars the workers remit.

The execution of a Filipina maid, Flor Contemplacion for murder in Singapore in 1995 triggered widespread outrage against the Philippine and Singapore governments.