(INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA)
MANILA, Philippines — Mary Jane Veloso, who was sent home after spending almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia for alleged drug trafficking, has appealed to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. to grant her clemency.
In a short interview with the media on Wednesday, Veloso said she is very happy to return to the Philippines.
The commercial flight that brought her home a week before Christmas Day arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City at around 5:40 a.m.
“Napakasaya po nakauwi sa bansa natin,” Veloso told reporters at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City.
(I’m so happy to be back home.)
“Pakiusap ko sa Pangulo sana bigyan na niya ko ng clemency,” she added.
(I am appealing to the President to grant me clemency.)
Aside from Veloso’s request, a lawmaker filed a resolution urging the House of Representatives to call on Marcos to grant Veloso clemency.
Clemency means the “conditional release of a prisoner from [the] correctional institution after serving the minimum period of prison sentence.”
The convoy transporting Veloso arrived at the CIW at around 7:06 a.m.
Veloso will be mandatorily housed at the Reception and Diagnostic Center of the CIW for a five-day quarantine and 55-day orientation, diagnostic evaluation, and initial security classification, the BuCor earlier disclosed.
Her return follows an agreement between Jakarta and Manila, which was announced by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Department of Foreign Affairs last November 19.
Veloso was sentenced to death in October 2010 after she was caught carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin at Yogyakarta airport in Indonesia on April 25 of the same year.
Veloso maintained she was unaware of the contents of her luggage as it was only handed to her by her recruiters, Julius Lacanilao and Maria Cristina Sergio.