By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos | Philippine News Agency
The request to grant executive clemency to Mary Jane Veloso depends on the determination of legal experts, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said Thursday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City, Marcos said it would take a long time to ascertain whether the grant of clemency to Veloso is “appropriate.”
Marcos stressed that while the Indonesian government did not stipulate any condition for Veloso’s return to the Philippines, he said reviewing her case is “still at the very preliminary stage.”
“Ang layo pa. Malayo pa tayo doon. We still have to have a look at really what the status is, and then of course we’re aware of the request for clemency from her representatives, of course, and from her family,” Marcos said, when asked if he was keen on granting clemency to Veloso.
“And we will leave it to the legal judgment of our legal experts to determine whether the provision of clemency is appropriate,” he added.
Speaking to members of the media upon her return to the country, Veloso hoped Marcos would grant her executive clemency.
Upon arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City on Wednesday morning, Veloso was immediately brought to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City where she is mandatorily housed at the Reception and Diagnostic Center for a five-day quarantine and a 55-day orientation, diagnostic evaluation, and initial security classification.
Veloso was jailed in Indonesia in 2010 and was sentenced to death in the same year after 2.6 kilograms of heroin was found in her suitcase.
She was given a last-minute reprieve in April 2015 when Manila informed Jakarta that her recruiters had surrendered.