Marcos hopeful of Veloso clemency amid case progress

President Ferdinand ”Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is hopeful that the progress on the case of convicted drug mule Mary Jane Veloso will merit her clemency. 

This was according to Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro who said that the legal interrogatories required from the Philippine Regional Trial Court on Veloso’s case have been sent to Jakarta for the Filipina to answer. 

”President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. expressed hope that the progression of the case of Ms. Veloso will merit her clemency at the appropriate time,” Lazaro said in a press statement. 

Lazaro said this would be part of Veloso’s testimony on the pending case that she filed against her illegal recruiters. 

Lazaro said the Philippine government would continuously exhaust all efforts to help Veloso and her family. 

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is currently in Manila for an official visit. The DFA said Veloso’s case would be taken up during the meeting of Philippine officials and their Indonesian counterparts. 

Jokowi and Marcos had a bilateral meeting earlier in a bid to strengthen ties between the two countries. 

In 2010, Veloso was convicted of drug trafficking after she was caught with 2.6 kilos of heroin in Yogyakarta. She was given the death penalty.

In 2015, Jokowi said their government gave Veloso a ”temporary reprieve” from her scheduled execution, as reported by The Jakarta Post.

Jokowi was quoted as saying that the action was a response to a request made by the Philippine government in relation to the case.

A case of human trafficking and a separate large scale illegal recruitment case were already filed against Veloso’s traffickers Julius Lacanilao and Cristina Sergio in the Regional Trial Court of Nueva Ecjia.—LDF, GMA Integrated News