INDONESIA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Tuesday the Philippine government will persist in its efforts to appeal to Indonesia to reduce or even forgive the sentence of Mary Jane Veloso, a drug courier who has been imprisoned in the country.
In a media interview, Marcos said he would raise Veloso’s case to Indonesian President Joko Widodo when they meet here.
“We haven’t really stopped. The impasse is that we continue to ask for a commutation or even a pardon or extradition back to the Philippines. That is constantly there,” Marcos said. “But the Indonesians answer us that this is the law.”
To recall, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo requested Indonesia in September 2022 to grant Veloso executive clemency when he met with Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on the sidelines of President Marcos’s state visit to Indonesia.
“They’ve already given us a postponement. But that doesn’t mean it’s done. I will always, I’ll always at least bring it up. Maybe, just maybe, there might be changes,” Marcos said.
In 2010, Veloso was found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to death after being caught in possession of 2.6 kilograms of heroin in Yogyakarta. She denied that the drugs were hers, saying a man she had met asked her to carry the bag to Indonesia.
Cesar and Celia Veloso, Veloso’s parents, had asked Marcos to plead for clemency from Widodo, the authority who imposed the sentence.