President Marcos on Wednesday, Jan. 10, expressed optimism that Mary Jane Veloso, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) on death row in Indonesia, would be given clemency by the Indonesian government amid new developments on her drug case.
This was according to Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary for ASEAN and Bilateral Affairs Ma. Theresa Lazaro, who bared that the legal interrogatories required by the Philippine court were already sent to Jakarta for Veloso to answer, "as part of her testimony on the pending case that she filed against her illegal recruiters."
That developed as President Joko Widodo arrived in the Philippines on Tuesday night for a visit to strengthen his country's relations with the latter.
"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 statement.
Lazaro also said that the Philippine government continues to exert its efforts to assist Veloso and her family.
In fact, she added, Veloso's family was able to spend the Christmas with her through the agency's assistance and the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta.
In September 2022, DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo first asked his Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi, to grant Veloso an executive clemency, which the latter acknowledged.
Marsudi assured Manalo that the request would be raised to their Ministry of Justice.
Veloso is on death row in Indonesia after she was reportedly caught in Yogyakarta in 2010 with several packs of heroin.
She was supposed to be executed by firing squad, but in April 2015, she was granted a last-minute reprieve after an appeal from the late president Benigno Aquino III to the Indonesian government, saying her alleged recruiters had already surrendered to Philippine authorities.
In May 2023, President Marcos said the government would not give up on its plea for Indonesia to pardon Veloso.