KUWAIT CITY -- Kuwait's supreme court yesterday confirmed the death sentence handed down on a Filipina maid convicted of murdering her employer.

The decision by the Cassation Court to uphold the ruling against Marilou Ranario is final and cannot be appealed.

"Sad news," was how Vice President Noli de Castro prefaced his announcement of the court ruling at a press conference in Manila yesterday.

Her fate is now in the hands of the ruler of the oil-rich emirate, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who will decide whether or not to sign the order for Ranario to be hanged.

Ranario was sentenced to death in September 2005 for killing her 46-year-old female employer over salary disputes and maltreatment.

De Castro said he would go to Kuwait next week to personally hand over to the emir President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's appeal seeking clemency or at least the commutation of Ranario's sentence.

"If we need to kneel before the emir, we will do so in exchange for Ranario's life," said De Castro, who described the emir as someone who is "close to Filipinos."

At the same time, he said four of the five relatives of the victim have given their forgiveness (tanazul) and accepted the "blood money" (dia). Under Islamic law, a killer can pay "blood money" to the victim's family to avoid execution.

Ranario, a teacher who left her two children (ages 11 and 13) in Surigao Del Norte in December 2003 to work as a domestic helper in Kuwait, alleged that her boss insulted her and people from the Philippines.

Some 73,000 Filipinos, mainly 60,000 women employed mostly as maids, work in the Gulf state.