Marcos meets Jokowi, asks Indonesia to reexamine Veloso’s case

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said Thursday he had asked the Indonesian government to reexamine the case of convicted drug mule Mary Jane Veloso. 

While en route to Manila, Marcos told reporters that he briefly mentioned Veloso’s case to Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the sidelines of the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Labuan Bajo in eastern Indonesia. 

Marcos said Widodo told him that what was enforced against Veloso was in accordance with Indonesian law. 

“I mentioned it pero hindi namin napag-usapan because as you can imagine the President was very busy, but at some point habang naglalakad kami, I was able to say we’re still trying to work hard on that case and ganoon din ‘yung sagot niya well ang ano diyan is na ‘yung batas talaga sa amin ay ganito,” Marcos said. 

(I mentioned it but we did not discuss it thoroughly because as you can imagine, the President was very busy, but at some point while we were walking, I was able to say we’re still trying to work hard on that case. And his response was that it’s how Indonesian law works.)

“So sabi ko the best that we can do I suppose is for the Indonesian authorities to reexamine the case para lang as a favor to the Philippines, ‘yun lang… ‘yun lang ang napag-usapan namin not more than that,” he added. 

(So I said the best that we can do I suppose is for the Indonesian authorities to reexamine the case as a favor to the Philippines. That’s all we discussed, not more than that.)

Marcos did not mention Widodo’s response to his appeal to revisit Veloso’s case. 

Earlier, Marcos vowed that the Philippine government would continue to work for the commutation of sentence or pardon for Veloso. 

Veloso was sentenced to die by firing squad in April 2015 after she was found guilty of drug trafficking, but Indonesia granted her a reprieve after her recruiter surrendered to authorities in the Philippines. —VBL, GMA Integrated News