Mary Jane Veloso on agenda of Duterte's Indonesia visit

MANILA, Philippines -- The case of Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina who was sentenced to death by an Indonesian court for drug trafficking, is part of the agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Indonesia this month.

 

Duterte, who vowed a bloody and relentless war against drugs, will visit Indonesia on Sept. 8 to 9 after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference in Laos.

 

“We have prisoners there. Many of them were imprisoned because of drugs, even Veloso,” he told Filipino migrant workers who arrived from Saudi Arabia at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 on Wednesday.

 

“I’m praying that I could do something for her.”

 

Veloso was given a death sentence for trafficking illegal drugs in 2010.

 

She was supposed to be executed by firing squad in April last year but was given a temporary reprieve after her trafficker surrendered to Philippine authorities. Veloso has maintained that she was not aware that the bag she was using when she was arrested in the Yogyakarta airport in 2010 contained drugs. The bag came from her alleged trafficker.

Duterte said in an interview on News5 in May that he cannot help Filipinos convicted abroad for being drug mules, adding the drug traffickers were aware that they were transporting drugs.

 

“What they call the mules, they travel several times all over Asia. Alam nila ‘yan, deep in their hearts, ‘Ito dalhin mo, naka-seal na ‘yan. Tapos punta ka doon sa airport. Ibigay mo sa...’ They would know. ‘Di ako maniwala na hindi nila alam,” Duterte said.

 

“No. I would go there to pray for clemency, not to kill, but maybe just to get a reprieve on the day of the execution. Pero wala akong magawa. At ayaw ko kasi, pasensya, I’m so sorry. What I will say, do not just kill. Maybe ilagay mo na lang sa prison, i-for life mo,” Duterte, who wants the death penalty reimposed on convicts of drug-related crimes, said then.  

 

He said, though, that he might ask for another investigation if he is "really skeptical" about the case.