FILIPINO domestic helper Mary Jane Veloso cannot expect any help from President Rodrigo Duterte despite her earnest appeal to testify before Philippine courts against her recruiters in a bid to overturn her death sentence, the Palace said Thursday.
“I don’t understand what exactly the President can do in this regard,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said of Veloso, who is still languishing in Indonesian death row.
Recently, the Court of Appeals’ denied Veloso’s appeals to stand witness against her recruiters Maria Cristina Sergio and her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao, after they supposedly tricked her into transporting illegal drugs to Indonesia in 2010.
Roque maintained that Veloso “is detained in foreign soil because of breach of Indonesian Penal Laws” but “continues to be alive despite being meted the death penalty.”
“But there is such a a thing as sovereignty and the matter is completely in the hands of the Indonesian government, although I think the Indonesian government by not carrying out the punishment of death penalty has shown clemency on a daily basis,” he added.
But while Malacañang was expressing any inability for presidential succor, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Philippines was reiterating its a firm commitment to give Veloso the best legal assistance through the DFA legal assistance funds.
In a text message, the DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Raul Dado however noted the assistance did not include a benefit where the accused’s family was entitled to visit their loved one yearly.
“In the case of Mary Jane, even if her family is not entitled to visit her yearly, the Philippine government and the DFA is (sic) still committed to giving her the best legal assistance through the generous use of the Legal Assistance Funds,” Dado said.
He said the DFA would continue to help Veloso by financing and hiring a lawyer for her, through the use of assistance funds.
“We are treating all death penalty cases similarly, and in this case, no one is entitled to yearly visits,” he said.
“The contemplation of the visits is once or twice after the conviction but not yearly,” he added.
The family of Veloso has visited her during the past five years.
On her birthday last Jan. 9, Veloso sent an appeal to Duterte to allow her to testify in the trial of Sergio and Lacanilao, in the hope she would be given the chance to testify in court and prove her innocence.
“President Duterte, my supposed execution was reprieved because Christina [Sergio] and Julius [Lacanilao] have pled (sic) their guilt and that I am innocent and had no knowledge of the drugs found in the luggage I brought.”
Veloso, a mother of two, was convicted for bringing 2.6 kilograms of heroin to the Yogyakarta Airport in 2010.
Her execution by firing squad was put on hold in 2015 to allow her to testify against the recruiters in the Philippines who allegedly duped her into bringing the illegal drugs to Indonesia.
But in an 18-page decision, the Former Eleventh Division reversed the ruling of Judge Anarica Castillo-Reyes of the Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court that allowed Veloso to testify against Maria Cristina Sergio and her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao.
The court said Reyes made an error in allowing the deposition of Veloso on April 27 in Yogyakarta Prison, saying the inmate must be present in the Philippines for the court to admit her testimony subject to a cross examination.
Duterte had only told Indonesian President Joko Widodo to follow their own laws, amid reports the President had given the green light for Veloso’s execution.
Veloso is one of 73 Filipinos bound for execution abroad, according to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
Dado said the assistance funds were not only being used for overseas Filipino workers in death row but also for the repatriation of distressed Filipino nationals, medical repatriation, emergency evacuation and the needs of millions of OFWs worldwide.
“Since these are public funds, the DFA is committed to an equitable use of these funds for all OFWs in need, giving a fair chance to all,” he pointed out.
Both Veloso and her parents have sought the help of Duterte in allowing her to testify in the trial of Veloso’s recruiters.
The three made the appeal despite Duterte’s firm stance against illegal drugs and his failure to bring up Veloso’s case with Widodo in two separate occasions.
Veloso, arrested at the Adisucipto Airport in Yogyakarta in April 2010 for bringing illegal drugs into Indonesia, was among the nine foreigners scheduled for execution in 2015 but got a last-minute reprieve after the previous administration intervened.
In October 2010, Veloso was sentenced to death by a panel of judges at the District Court of Sleman, Yogyakarta.
The source said Veloso would be executed at Nusakambangan Prison in Cilacap, but no date has been set.
Veloso has been spared twice following the presentation of a case in the Philippines that said she had been duped into smuggling heroin into Indonesia by a drug syndicate.
In 2016, Mary Jane Veloso’s recruiters, Sergio, admitted in a hearing at the Justice department that she and her live-in partner Lacanilao, worked for an international drug ring.