Indonesian bishops asked: Save Filipina

Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Philippine Catholic bishops have asked their counterparts in Indonesia to earnestly beg Indonesian President Joko Widodo to commute the death sentence meted out on Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino woman now on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking charges.

“May I … ardently request the Catholic Bishops Conference of Indonesia to implore the President of Indonesia to commute the harsh sentence meted out on Mary Jane and to allow her children to grow up in the loving embrace of their mother,” Lingayen Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said in a letter to Jakarta Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, president of Episcopal Conference of Indonesia.

“As bishops, we are committed to the Gospel of Life and united with the Holy Father in our unequivocal rejection of the death penalty,” Villegas stressed.

Veloso, a 30-year-old mother of two, is currently on death row in Indonesia after she was caught in 2010 carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin worth $500,000 on her arrival at the Yogyakarta airport from Kuala Lumpur where she had worked as a maid.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is set to file a second appeal for the judicial review of Veloso’s case after Indonesian authorities announced her execution could take place any time after April 24.

According to Villegas, upon inquiry with the Philippine diplomatic mission in Indonesia, he was informed that Veloso had for a translator one who, though able to understand and to speak both English and Bahasa, was totally unfamiliar with Tagalog that Veloso speaks.

“She then may not have been properly and completely understood by the trial court,” Villegas said in his letter dated April 14.

“Mary Jane’s …. days are numbered. She has been sentenced to death by an Indonesian court and her attempts to seek a reversal of her condemnation by appeal have been unavailing,” the prelate said.

He added that Veloso is one of thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who leave their families behind in the hope that their sacrifice will allow those they love to live more comfortable lives.

“Mary Jane is in fact a mother and no mother will leave her children for a foreign land unless strongly motivated by a desire to better the lot of her family,” Villegas said.

Villegas vowed that the CBCP would do its share in educating OFWs to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

“We, for our part, as the CBCP, will do our utmost towards the proper education and orientation of our overseas Filipino workers to avoid unfortunate events,” he said.

Veloso’s family earlier sought the help of the CBCP to stop the execution of their loved one.