VELOSO ON THEIR MIND President Aquino asks Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo to spare the life of Filipino Mary Jane Veloso after the plenary session of the 26th Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur. AP
Led by the hand through a scrum of reporters to the Indonesian island prison of Nusakambangan, the 6-year-old boy looked confused and frightened as he made one of his final visits to his mother before her execution.
During the visit, Filipino maid Mary Jane Veloso gently explained to 6-year-old Mark Darren and her second son, 12-year-old Mark Daniel, that she would not be coming home.
“She tried to explain again,” Agence France-Presse quoted Veloso’s elder sister Marites Veloso-Laurente as saying during an interview in Cilacap, the port town that is the gateway to the island. “If Mama does not come home, just think Mama is in heaven.”
She could go as early as Tuesday, with an Indonesian district court rejecting on Monday a second appeal of her death sentence for drug trafficking.
Charles Jose, spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said the Sleman District Court denied Veloso’s second appeal in accordance with the Indonesian Supreme Court’s rule that “only one appeal is allowed.”
Rejection confirmed
He said the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta had confirmed the rejection of the appeal that the Philippine government had brought on Veloso’s behalf.
Veloso’s Indonesian lawyer, Agus Salim, also confirmed that the appeal had been rejected.
Salim said the appeal presented a new finding obtained from an investigation by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
“Results of the investigation reveal that Mary Jane is not a courier in the international drug trade. This finding has been confirmed by the National Narcotics Agency,” Salim said.
“It seems that the judicial panel did not want to include the [new finding] in their considerations,” he said.
But the DFA, Jose said, remained hopeful that Veloso’s execution could still be stayed, with President Aquino appealing to Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to spare her life.
Aquino and Widodo met for five minutes Monday morning on the sidelines of the 26th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit and discussed Veloso’s case.
President Aquino did not get a concrete response from Widodo, who said he would have to consult the Indonesian attorney general.
Widodo promised to continue the discussion in the afternoon, before the summit moved from Kuala Lumpur to the resort island of Langkawi.
On the plane to Langkawi, the President sent word through Communications Undersecretary Renato Marfil that he was still waiting for Widodo’s response to his request.
It appeared that Widodo had decided not to join the other Asean leaders in Langkawi, an hour’s flight from Kuala Lumpur.
President Aquino and his entourage arrived on the island at 5:26 p.m.
As of press time, there was no word if the President and Widodo had talked again.
Reached by phone, Marfil told the Inquirer that the “resumption of conversation” that Widodo promised Aquino did not mean meeting face-to-face again.
But the Philippine government continued to wait for word from Indonesia, Marfil said.
After 8 p.m., however, Reuters reported the Indonesian attorney general as saying that Veloso would still face execution after the last-ditch appeal from President Aquino.
Jose, however, said Monday night the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta had no confirmation that the attorney general said there was no clemency for Veloso.
Earlier on Monday, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said Aquino appealed to Widodo “for humanitarian consideration.”
He said Aquino told Widodo that Veloso, a 30-year-old single mother of two, was “apparently duped into being an unwitting carrier of illegal drugs.”
Coloma said Widodo was “sympathetic and was consulting with the Indonesian attorney general on the legal issues.”
‘So long as there’s life’
Asked if there was hope Veloso could be spared, Coloma said: “So long as there is life, there is hope.”
The Inquirer learned that the two leaders discussed extensively Veloso’s case during Widodo’s visit to Manila in February. As early as that time, Widodo and the Indonesian Supreme Court refused clemency appeals for Veloso.
Veloso, held along with nine other death convicts from Australia, Brazil, France, Nigeria and Indonesia on Nusakambangan, was given notice of her execution by the attorney general’s office last Saturday. It set her execution by firing squad Tuesday.
Veloso was convicted of trafficking heroin into Indonesia in October 2010, but she has said her only crime was to fall victim to international drug gangs which are now threatening to kill her family if they speak out.
Her case has drawn huge attention in both Indonesia and the Philippines, with supporters calling for clemency at regular rallies in Jakarta and Manila.
Pacquiao’s appeal
Even world boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao pleaded on Monday for her life to be spared, taking time out from preparations for his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“I am begging and knocking at your kind heart that your excellency grant executive clemency to her by sparing her life and saving her from execution,” Pacquiao, who is also a congressman, said in a video call to a local television network from his Los Angeles training camp.
“On May 2nd, I will be fighting in Las Vegas, Nevada, against Floyd Mayweather, which is considered the fight of the century. It will be a great morale booster, if in my own little way, I can save a life,” a solemn-looking Pacquiao said.
Pacquiao’s statement came just hours after Veloso’s 55-year-old mother, Celia, made a desperate and tearful appeal for the boxing champion to help her daughter.
“Manny, please help save my daughter. Please speak up. Any word from you will help greatly because you are very popular in Indonesia,” Celia Veloso said in a radio interview.
Last visit
As Veloso’s family wept and prepared to cross to Nusakambangan on Monday for what could be the last time, supporters in both Manila and Jakarta turned out waving “Save Mary Jane” banners and urging them to keep their spirits up.
In front of the Indonesian Embassy in Makati City, protesters from the militant group Kilusang Mayo Uno called on the nation to step up efforts to save Veloso.
“We encourage everyone to wear white and to light candles in their homes or offices,” said KMU campaign manager Jerome Adonis.
He urged Filipinos to unite and speak up on social media sites and appeal to the Indonesian government to spare Veloso’s life.
Malacañang also appealed to the nation to pray that Widodo would have a “change of heart” and stay the execution of Veloso.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda urged Filipinos to pray that Widodo would “look with mercy” on Veloso and “commute the decision.”
At the DFA, Jose said another sister of Veloso, Darlene, left for Indonesia on Monday with government help to join the rest of the family on Nusakambangan.
The family has been visiting Veloso since Saturday.
But the show of support from the Indonesian and Filipino public could do little for Celia Veloso. Her calls for Widodo to spare her youngest child were growing increasingly desperate.
“She says, ‘My daughter is innocent . . . it’s not easy to lose someone like her,’” Fr. Harold Toleadano, a Filipino priest based in Indonesia and assisting the family, said in an interview with AFP.
11th-hour miracle
The mother is hoping for an 11th-hour miracle, and Veloso’s sister Marites is appealing directly to Widodo to spare her sister.
“I would like to convey to you it’s only God who has the right to take away the life of anyone,” she said in a message to Widodo.
Marites is particularly fearful for Veloso’s young sons, who played happily with toy cars at their hotel, oblivious to the family’s mounting desperation and officials swirling around them.
But she knows Mark Daniel will always keep a watchful eye over his younger brother, recounting a pledge he had made to his mother in recent days.
“He promised his mother that he would take care of his younger brother and they will study hard,” she said.–With reports from Jerry E. Esplanada, Maricar B. Brizuela, wires and The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
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