Palace exec denies last-minute scramble to save Veloso

By: Aries Joseph Hegina - 9 years ago

A Malacañang official on Wednesday said the government did not slack off in its efforts to save Mary Jane Veloso from execution.

In a press briefing, Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras said President Benigno Aquino III began acting on Veloso’s plight in 2011, when the Indonesian Supreme Court released its decision on her case.

READ: Veloso execution stopped

“The decision of the Supreme Court of Indonesia to execute Mary Jane happened in 2011. Records will show that that was the decision. The President’s actions started way back in 2011 and that time it was very effective. The fact that we have reached 2015 is a credit to the (Department of Foreign Affairs’) initiative to the President’s own appeals. They would have wanted to do something in 2011 so the accusation that we acted on the last minute—it’s not true,” Almendras said.

Almendras echoed the earlier statement of the DFA saying that the government had been involved in the case “every step of the way.”

He also said that the accusations of militant groups that Aquino had neglected Veloso were “unfair.”

“Napaka-unfair naman na walang ginawa (It’s very unfair for them to say that the government did not do anything). There is data, there is proof, there is documentary evidence na trinabaho ito from the very beginning (that the case was addressed from the very beginning),” he said.

Almendras also revealed that Aquino even broke diplomatic protocols in his bid to save the Filipina’s life.

He narrated that the President insisted to talk to Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi to tell her of the Philippine government’s new defense for Veloso: Turning her to a witness against her alleged recruiter, Maria Kristina Sergio.

Sergio surrendered to authorities hours before Veloso was set for execution.

“The normal protocol is to set up a conversation between the two presidents is the minister of foreign affairs talks to the other minister of foreign affairs, they discuss, they agree then the call between the two presidents is arranged.

“When that was being done, when Secretary Albert (del Rosario) was ready to call the minister of foreign affairs of Indonesia, the President said, ‘I want to talk to her.’ And of course, all the diplomats were saying ‘okay.’

“So what happened was Secretary Albert did call the minister of foreign affairs but she was not able to answer it immediately. Finally Secretary Albert was able to get in touch, the President broke protocol, he said, ‘no, I will also talk to her.’

“And it was the President himself who talked to the Indonesian foreign minister. The Indonesian foreign minister was quite surprised because normally that’s not been done but when the President did that, she promised, ‘Yes, Mr. President, I will immediately relay your message to both the president and to whoever else needs to know in Jakarta,’” Almendras said.

The Indonesian government granted a “temporary reprieve” for Veloso early Wednesday morning citing Aquino’s request to turn Veloso as a witness against Sergio and to relay her knowledge on the drug syndicate which duped her to become a courier.

However, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the Filipina drug convict’s execution was only deferred and not annulled.

In an earlier statement, Aquino and DFA both thanked the Widodo administration for deferring Veloso’s execution. RC