A lawyer for the recently-repatriated Mary Jane Veloso said it is about time the Philippine government pardon her in view of Indonesian authorities’ decision to release five of the nine Australian drug convicts known as the “Bali 9” after 19 years of detention.
“I don’t see any legal, political, or moral impediment why the president can hold back,” Edre Olalia said in a television interview on Thursday.
“The grant of clemency is not based on legal grounds. The grant of clemency, particularly absolute pardon, is based on humanitarian grounds, which is beyond the legal considerations. The humanitarian consideration is overwhelming and will override any legal question,” he told ANC.
Human rights groups have joined Veloso’s family in urging President Marcos to grant the Filipina absolute pardon, saying she was a victim of human trafficking and that she deserves to be granted clemency due to humanitarian grounds.
Olalia also said he was “quite confident that sooner than later” the President would grant executive clemency to his client, who has been detained for the last 14 years.
Veloso was arrested and sentenced to death in 2010 after 2.6 kilograms of heroin was found in her luggage, but the Filipina asserted that the bag was only handed to her by her recruiters.
She narrowly escaped death by firing squad in 2015 after her recruiters were arrested shortly before her scheduled execution.
Olalia, also chair of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, said rather than debate on whether or not Veloso knew that prohibited drugs were stashed in her luggage, “we should direct the attention to whether or not there is enough humanitarian basis to grant her clemency.”
“We are not asking that everybody should be granted absolute pardon, not at all. We’re asking that given the fact that what Mary Jane went through and the circumstances that she had to undergo, she certainly deserves the absolute pardon that only the president can exercise,” he added.
It can be recalled that the Bali Nine were a group of nine Australians convicted for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kg (18 lb) of heroin out of Indonesia in April 2005.
Ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to death and executed on April 29, 2015.
Six of the remaining members were meted life sentences while a seventh was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Of the seven, one died in prison while another was released in 2018.
On December 15, the five remaining members of the Bali Nine arrived back in Darwin on a commercial flight under a secretive deal between Australia and Indonesia.
They will not be required to serve any further prison time in the country.
