Marcos on Mary Jane Veloso’s return: ‘We’re celebrating already’

Mary Jane Veloso  (AFP file photo)

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday said the government is already celebrating Mary Jane Veloso’s return, a day before her actual arrival.

“We’re celebrating already,” said Marcos in a chance interview in Makati City when asked about Veloso.

Fourteen years after being arrested and sentenced to death in Indonesia, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday announced that Veloso will finally return home on Wednesday, December 18.

Malacañang also confirmed her “imminent return,” citing “a decade of persistent discussions, consultations and diplomacy.”

Upon her arrival, Veloso will be brought to the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City.

The Palace earlier on Tuesday reiterated that Marcos has yet to decide whether or not he will grant Veloso clemency, stating that his main priority right now is preventing delays on Veloso’s return.

“Nothing to say yet on what may happen. The priority of [the President] is to have Veloso repatriated without delay,” said Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.

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

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