PH ambassador visits Mary Jane in Yogyakarta

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia—Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Maria Lumen B. Isletta visited on Thursday Filipino drug convict Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso at the Wirogunan Penitentiary in Yogyakarta.

Isletta arrived at the prison in the morning and stayed for more than two hours. However, she and her team declined to give comments to the media when they left.

“It is only a routine visit while the ambassador is here in Yogyakarta,” Wirogunan Penitentiary warden Zainal Arifin said on Thursday.

Zainal also said he did not know about the conversation between the ambassador and Veloso, as they were speaking in Tagalog.

According to Zainal, the ambassador gave Veloso bread and did not give her any money during the meeting.

“[It was] probably from the plane because there was a Garuda logo on it,” Zainal said.

Following the ambassador’s visit, Philippine superstar boxer Manny Pacquiao is scheduled to meet Veloso. However, Zainal said he was unsure when the boxer would visit the prison.

READ: Pacquiao to visit Veloso on death row Friday

“Probably tomorrow [Friday] but I don’t know the exact time,” he said.

Pacquiao arrived in Yogyakarta on Wednesday night and is scheduled to stay for three days. He is in the city to do a commercial shoot with Indonesian boxer Chris Jon.

Veloso was among nine death row inmates scheduled to be executed in April this year for drug trafficking charges. She was arrested with 2.6 kilograms of heroin at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta in 2010.

The Indonesian government decided to give her a temporary reprieve from execution after a woman who allegedly recruited Veloso to act as a drug courier gave herself up to police in the Philippines.

READ: Veloso reprieve a ‘miracle’