DOJ: No treaty involved in Mary Jane Veloso’s return to PH

Mary Jane Veloso — PHOTO COURTESY OF VELOSO FAMILY

MANILA, Philippines — No treaty was involved in Mary Jane Veloso’s eventual return to the Philippines as it was only made possible through an agreement “based on international comity and courtesy” with Indonesia, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Thursday.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday announced that the Philippine and Indonesian governments agreed to finally bring Veloso back to Manila after 10 years of diplomacy and consultation regarding her case.

“So, all the conditions are in accordance with the agreement of the two countries; that will be the basis,” DOJ Undersecretary Raul Vasquez said in Filipino at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing.

When asked if Veloso could be granted clemency upon her return to the Philippines, Vasquez said it would depend on Indonesia.

READ: Clemency for Mary Jane Veloso? Marcos says ‘everything is on the table’

“We have to respect the judgment that the Indonesian courts made that she was convicted of an actual crime, we cannot abandon that… Because it would be like abandoning the agreement we had with Indonesia,” he explained in Filipino.

Veloso was arrested in 2010 at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin.

She was then sentenced to death, but was spared in 2015 after Philippine officials under the Aquino administration asked then-Indonesian President Joko Widodo to allow her to testify against members of a human and drug-smuggling syndicate in Manila.

According to Vasquez, Indonesia’s decision allowing Veloso to be transferred back to the Philippines effectively means that it has agreed to commute her sentence from death penalty to life imprisonment since there is no death penalty in the Philippines.

“Therefore, her maximum penalty here is life imprisonment,” he added.

Meanwhile, the national government—through the Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs—vowed to honor the conditions set by Indonesia in allowing Veloso to return back to the Philippines.

READ: PH to honor Indonesia’s conditions in Mary Jane Veloso’s return