MANILA - A FILIPINA has avoided the death sentence after Malaysia's high court acquitted her of drug trafficking, Manila's foreign department said on Monday.

Armah Candelario, 31, was arrested earlier this year and charged with trafficking heroin found in her luggage. She had claimed innocence saying the luggage belonged to a Zambian acquaintance and she did not know its contents.

Apparently unaware she was carrying drugs, she had also travelled to India, China and Vietnam with a friend's luggage, the department said.

The Malaysian court said it could not prove beyond reasonable doubt the Filipina knew what was in the luggage and ordered her freed last Thursday, Manila's envoy to Kuala Lumpur, Mr Victoriano Lecaros, said.

Mr Lecaros said diplomats were now working to have the Filipina repatriated.

The foreign department warned of an increasing trend of unsuspecting Filipinos being arrested in other countries after being duped into carrying drugs.

From January to July 2008, it said 116 Filipino travellers were intercepted and arrested at various international airports for drug trafficking.

It blamed international crime gangs of convincing unsuspecting travellers to carry parcels for them, usually in exchange for cash.

'These items of luggage or parcels invariably contain narcotics or illicit drugs,' the department said.

Over eight million Filipinos work abroad, many of them as maids and labourers in neighbouring Asian countries or in the Middle East. -- AFP