JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla will meet with his Indonesian counterpart on Friday to discuss the impending transfer to Manila of Mary Jane Veloso who has been languishing on death row in an Indonesian jail for over a decade now.
Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez told reporters yesterday that the Indonesian government requested a face-to-face meeting between Remulla and the Indonesian Minister for Human Rights and Corrections.
“The Secretary and I may go there this Friday and I think it will be about the details of the possible transfer,” Vasquez said.
He said they might also ask the Indonesian government to allow them to visit Veloso in her detention cell.
Earlier, Remulla said Veloso might be housed at the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City once she is transferred to the country from Indonesia.
However, Bureau of Corrections Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said they also have facilities in Davao and Palawan which Veloso may prefer.
At the CIW in Mandaluyong, Catapang said, Veloso will join at least 20 inmates at the minimum security compound.
“She won’t be isolated or placed in solitary confinement,” Catapang earlier said, as he also assured Veloso and her family of her safety inside their facilities.
Caritas Philippines, the social advocacy arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, joined calls for a clemency grant for Veloso.
The CBCP on Monday night hosted Veloso’s parents, Cesar and Celia, in a Mass at the CBCP office in Intramuros, Manila.
“Solidarity is rising once more to pray that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr grants clemency for Mary Jane upon her arrival,” said Caritas Philippines.
“Their family has endured much in this tumultuous journey. Mary Jane’s human trafficking has affected them all,” it said.
Velasco has been languishing in Indonesian jail since 2010 after she was apprehended by Indonesian authorities at the Yogyakarta airport for bringing in more than two kilograms of heroin.
Her execution by firing squad in April 2015 was stopped by then-President Joko Widodo merely an hour before it was supposed to be carried out, based on the appeals of then-President Benigno Aquino III who explained that her testimony is vital in the case she has filed against her recruiters.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month announced that an agreement has been reached between the Philippines and Indonesia for the turnover of Veloso’s jurisdiction to the Philippine government. – With Gerard Naval
