Palace says Widodo vowed to review Veloso case

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Indonesian President Joko Widodo

Indonesian President Joko Widodo assured President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. during their bilateral talks that Jakarta would reexamine the case of convicted drug mule Mary Jane Veloso, Presidential Communications Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil said on Thursday.

The day before, Veloso’s 63-year-old mother Celia begged Widodo to pardon her daughter, who has been on death row since 2010, before he leaves office in October.

“It hurts to think about it, but when I’m gone, who will take care of her children if Mary Jane is still not free then?” Celia said during a demonstration outside Malacañang on Wednesday.

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Veloso’s family had hoped that the Indonesian leader would announce the grant of executive clemency to the overseas Filipino worker (OFW) on Jan. 10, since it was her 39th birthday.

But the issue was not a simple one because the Indonesian government was still waiting for the Philippine court to issue a ruling on the case filed by Veloso against her recruiters, Julius Lacanilao and Maria Cristina Sergio, Garafil said.

The OFW was arrested upon arrival at Yogyakarta International Airport on April 25, 2010, after 2.6 kilograms of heroin were found hidden in the lining of her luggage. She claimed that the luggage was given to her by her recruiters and two black men.

However, Veloso was convicted by an Indonesian court of drug trafficking and sentenced to die on Oct. 11, 2010, a penalty that was postponed indefinitely because of a moratorium on capital punishment enacted by former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Upon Widodo’s election in 2014, however, the death penalty became active again and the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected Veloso’s final appeal.

But days before her scheduled execution, Sergio surrendered to the police in relation to Veloso’s case and several other charges of illegal recruitment, human trafficking and estafa.

She and Lacanilao have since been sentenced to life imprisonment over a separate case, although Veloso’s case remains pending at the regional trial court of Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija.