PH gov’t: No ‘advanced notification’ from Indonesia on Veloso execution

The Philippine government has not received any “advanced notification” from the Indonesian government whether or not Mary Jane Veloso would be among the drug convicts to be executed soon.

According to a report by the Jakarta Post on Tuesday, 14 of the 55 drug convicts sentenced to death would face execution soon.

The report quoted the National Narcotic Agency (NBB), saying more drug convicts were facing execution soon. The date of execution, however, was not determined.

“Usually they give an advance notification,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said on Wednesday, citing the Philippine embassy in Jakarta has not received any notice.

“Since we did not receive an official notice, we can assume that nothing will happen,” Jose added.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers said the news about a new batch of execution for drug convicts in Indonesia “refers to a general policy announcement about new executions in general, without naming who are included and who are not.”

“This was validated by our Indonesian sources on the ground,” Edre Olalia, one of the legal counsels of Veloso said in a statement.

Olalia said there was a specific Indonesian official announcement in late 2015 “declaring executions are not their priority but their economy.”

“Mary Jane has standing reprieve in her favor pending legal proceedings in Philippines, which was the official Indonesian basis of said suspension of execution in April last year,” Olalia said.

The lawyer lamented that the multiple cases against Veloso’s illegal recruiters were “proceeding not as swiftly” as it should be because of the delaying tactics of the recruiters lawyers.

“But we should continue to be on guard so Mary Jane can already come home sooner than later,” Olalia said.

Veloso, a convicted Filipino drug trafficker in Indonesia, was given a last-minute execution reprieve in April 2015.

She is an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who was sentenced to death after being arrested in Indonesia with several kilos of heroin hidden in her luggage in 2010.