Migrant rights activists raise march with banners and placards in Manila on Tuesday urging the Philippine government to save Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino migrant facing execution in Indonesia for drug charges. Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld its ruling and ordered her execution.(MNS Photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has granted the request of the family of Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina facing execution in Indonesia for drug smuggling, to visit her there.
“At the initiative of Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario, arrangements have been made by the Department of Foreign Affairs to accommodate the request of Mary Jane Veloso for her family to visit her in Indonesia,” the DFA said in a brief news release Wednesday.
“Any delay in their trip is brought about by personal engagements of the family,” it added.
Veloso’s father Ceasar, accompanied by lawyers, left for Indonesia on Tuesday to appeal for her freedom. It was his third time to meet his daughter since her arrest and incarceration in 2010.
Prior to that, on April 17, Veloso’s sister Marites went to Indonesia bearing a notebook containing messages from their parents and Veloso’s children.
President Benigno Aquino III earlier this week sought for Veloso’s clemency before the Indonesian government – his third attempt to save the Filipino convict’s life.
Aquino sent his first letter in 2011 to then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the second to President Joko Widodo for a judicial review.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, the presidential adviser for OFW concerns, is also eyeing a personal meeting with Widodo to personally ask him to spare Veloso’s life.
Arguing that Veloso wasn’t given a proper interpreter during her trial, the government is seeking a second judicial review on the case, after the first one was rejected by the Indonesian Supreme Court.
Veloso, 30, was convicted for drug smuggling after 2.6 kilograms of heroin was found in her suitcase by authorities at the Yogyakarta Airport in April 2010.(MNS)