More than a hundred activists gathered outside the Indonesian Embassy in Manila on Friday (April 24) to appeal for clemency pending the execution of a Filipino national in Indonesia.
Mary Jane Veloso, a mother of two children, was arrested with 2.6 kilograms of heroin at Yogyakarta airport in 2010. Her plea for presidential clemency and judicial review were rejected.
Migrant rights activists accompanied several family members in front of the embassy gate, carrying placards and banners appealing for mercy for the Filipino.
“We expect and hope that Indonesian President (Joko) Widodo will have sympathy for us. We hope he will refrain from judging our sibling and re-investigate her case. We will accept any verdict if she really did something wrong, but it hurts because we believe that she is really innocent,” said Christopher Veloso, brother of Mary Jane.
Michael Candelaria, Veloso’s ex husband who came from the northern Philippines, made similar calls to President Benigno Aquino.
“We hope that our President will help save the life of my wife because she did nothing wrong,” he said.
Early on Friday, Veloso was transferred to the maximum security prison in the island of Nusakambangan in West Java, signaling the execution could be near. She was the last to be transferred among the group of ten.
Her family members are already in Indonesia and expected to visit her in the day.
Veloso is one of the 10 drug convicts who will be facing execution by firing squad. Others on the list include citizens from France, Brazil, Australia, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia.
Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay, who was in Jakarta for the Asia-Africa conference, made a humanitarian appeal on behalf of the Philippine prisoner.
Indonesia has harsh punishments for drug crimes and resumed executions in 2013 after a five-year gap. Six have been carried out so far this year. (Reuters)