‘Show no mercy’

It was a good thing President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. didn’t bring up the subject of pardoning Mary Jane Veloso in his talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Veloso is a Filipina migrant worker on death row who was caught with 2.6 kilos of heroin at the Yogyakarta airport in 2010.

To ask for Veloso’s release might be misconstrued as interfering in Indonesia’s judicial system.

It’s enough that President Widodo granted former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s request for a stay of execution for Veloso.

Our country should be very thankful Veloso’s execution had been postponed indefinitely due to PNoy’s request.

Veloso deserves her death conviction, as she was a drug mule. She allowed herself to become a drug courier by a syndicate, of course, for a huge fee. The drug syndicate’s offer was probably too tempting not to grab.

Let Veloso be an example to Filipinos traveling abroad, especially migrant workers, not to mess with the laws of other countries.

What if China, for example, asked the Philippine government to release the Chinese nationals convicted of drug trafficking and are serving their life sentence – the death sentence was abolished during the time of president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, due to pressure from the Catholic Church – at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa?

I’m sure we would look at the request as interference in our judicial system.

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I had the same stand in the case of Flor Contemplacion, a Filipina maid in Singapore, who was executed by hanging for killing a fellow Filipina worker, Delia Maga, and the latter’s 3-year-old ward.

The execution took place even after this country requested Singapore to pardon Contemplacion.

Filipinos, being emotional people, strongly protested and marched in the streets in the weeks leading up to Contemplacion’s execution on March 17, 1995.

The Filipinos’ flair for dramatics was exemplified by a picture of a prominent society matron embracing Contemplacion’s coffin, after it was taken down from a jetliner from Singapore.

Even Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte got into the act by burning the Singaporean flag in public.

The protest marches led to the resignation of then Labor secretary Nieves Confesor and Foreign secretary Roberto Romulo. They did so to save the skin of then president Fidel V. Ramos.

This columnist was reviled for publicly defending Singapore’s turning down our country’s request for mercy for Contemplacion. I said Singapore copied its laws from the English legal system, which is ideal.

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From an objective view aided by memories from the mists of time, may I tell you why Contemplacion was executed?

Housemaid Contemplacion killed nanny Maga and drowned her ward out of rage after Flor found out that she and Delia were sharing the same boyfriend, a fellow Filipino.

Flor and Delia were both married and had families in the Philippines.

Flor’s family – her husband and children – received a windfall of hundreds of thousands of pesos from the government and private individuals and groups. Her children were given scholarships by sympathetic donors.

On the other hand, the family of Maga, the murder victim, never received even a pittance from her countrymen.

The Contemplacion affair was one of the country’s most shameful episodes, because we made a heroine out of a murderess.

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If the intelligence reports about a customs official are true, then the administration of President Bongbong is rewarding a former drug trafficker.

The customs official was a source of illegal drugs in a province in the Visayas, where he was once an anti-drug operative.

The “narc” operative-turned-customs official sold drugs he and his men confiscated from drug pushers and dealers.

In police parlance, the customs official was once a “ninja,” a law enforcer who recycled seized drugs.

This columnist has a copy of the intelligence reports about this customs official who had a sordid past as a narc.

I can show to the authorities the hard copy of the intelligence reports if they ask.

The intelligence reports say that this once-upon-a-time punk made millions distributing illegal drugs in his area of jurisdiction.

Don’t be surprised if illegal drugs will pass through customs and flood our streets… again.

Shame, shame, shame!

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Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio, who manned the fort while President Bongbong was on a state visit to Indonesia and Singapore, asked government security forces to show no mercy to terrorists and criminals.

She may well have stressed that law enforcers – policemen and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) – who commit crimes are scums of the earth, because they trample on the laws they are supposed to uphold.

There ought to be a law which gives the severest penalty to law enforcers engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping, robbery in band, protecting criminals, murder, rape and protecting their fellow lawmen who commit crimes.

Now, people know how VP Sara will deal with crime when she gets elected in 2028.

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The 20 or so Quezon City policemen who tried to cover up for a fellow officer involved in a hit-and-run accident that killed a tricycle driver should be shown no mercy.

Just because the victim of the hit-and-run was a tricycle driver should not diminish the policeman’s offense who, at the time, was reportedly driving his car while he was drunk.

It’s pleasing to hear that Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte has assured the victim’s family that justice will be served.

But why did it have to take the mayor entering the picture for the case to move accordingly?