The executions came after repeated pleas by the Philippine government for their sentences to be commuted were turned down, and ended vigils in Manila where supporters of the trio had prayed for a miracle.

"Our government had taken every available opportunity to appeal to the authorities of China for clemency in their cases," presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.

"In the end, however, the sentences were imposed."

He said the three -- Ramon Credo, 42, Sally Villanueva, 32, and Elizabeth Batain, 38 -- were put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday morning, although the Chinese government did not publicly announce the killings.

The trio were sentenced to death after being arrested in China in 2008 for attempting to smuggle heroin into the country.

In its pleas the Philippine government had insisted the three were gullible victims of crime syndicates who had been duped into becoming drug couriers.

The three were allowed to meet their relatives for an hour before they were executed, in what turned out to be devastatingly emotional encounters.

"She was crying, she was partly incoherent. She had a lot of things to say," said Jason Ordinario, a brother of Villanueva who along with another sister and their parents met her as the final verdict was read in a court in Xiamen city.

"She asked us to take care of her children and make sure they can finish studies," he told DZBB radio from China.

Villanueva's relatives said she did not know that she was due to be executed on Wednesday, and was surprised to see her family there.

"I was the first one to see her, we locked eyes and we both cried. She said what are you doing here, why are you all crying, am I going to die," younger sister Mylene said on DZBB.

"She tried to console us. She said, it's okay. I have accepted my fate. I will be your angel and watch over you."

Villanueva's children, aged 12 and nine, were not able to see or talk with their mother before she was killed. They did not travel to China and local authorities would not allow mobile phones into the meeting room.

Surrounded by a throng of supporters and journalists, Villanueva's relatives in Manila erupted in anguished cries as news of the execution broke.

There were similar reactions at the home of Credo, but the family of Batain had requested privacy and no media were with them.

Outside the Villanueva home in a northern Manila slum was a poster comparing her to Flor Contemplacion, a Filipina maid whose hanging in Singapore in 1995 led to a cooling of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Contemplacion was convicted of murder, although it was widely perceived in the Philippines that she was framed.

Her fate remains an infamous tale about the perils faced by the nine million Filipinos working abroad, many of whom face exploitation while toiling away in low-paying jobs hoping to earn enough money to support relatives at home.

Amnesty International criticised Wednesday's executions and accused President Benigno Aquino's government of not doing enough to save the three.

"We strongly condemn the executions of the three Filipinos," Amnesty's Philippine representative, Aurora Parong, told AFP.

"The Philippines should have taken a stronger action, and it is now its moral duty to lead a campaign against death penalty in Asia."

Church leaders, who had asked the public to join them in prayer for a miracle change of heart by Chinese authorities, also expressed anger.

"We had knocked on the doors of heaven to pray for what turned out to be an impossible wish," added Edwin Corros, executive secretary of church's commission for the pastoral care of migrants, told AFP.

"We call on China to abolish death penalty. We believe no one has the right to take a human life."

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