Mary Jane Veloso

As the clocked ticked on Tuesday towards midnight, the hour when nine drug traffickers were expected to be executed on a high-security prison island in Indonesia, mandarins in the Philippines waited nervously for some word from Jakarta.

As they walked to face the firing squad on an Indonesian prison island, eight condemned drug traffickers defiantly sang praise to God, witnesses said, while in a town across the water a group of tearful supporters was also uniting in song.

Indonesia, on early Wednesday, executed seven foreign drug convicts including two Australians by firing squad but a Filipina was spared at the 11th hour, local reports said.

Nine drug traffickers were being held in isolation cells at an Indonesian maximum security prison today awaiting execution by firing squad, after Indonesian authorities notified them they had no hope of reprieve.

As the clocked ticked on Tuesday towards midnight, the hour when nine drug traffickers were expected to be executed on a high-security prison island in Indonesia, mandarins in the Philippines waited nervously for some word from Jakarta.

As they walked to face the firing squad on an Indonesian prison island, eight condemned drug traffickers defiantly sang praise to God, witnesses said, while in a town across the water a group of tearful supporters was also uniting in song.

Indonesia, on early Wednesday, executed seven foreign drug convicts including two Australians by firing squad but a Filipina was spared at the 11th hour, local reports said.

Nine drug traffickers were being held in isolation cells at an Indonesian maximum security prison today awaiting execution by firing squad, after Indonesian authorities notified them they had no hope of reprieve.