Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 1) — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will “most likely” bring up the case of Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina on death row in Indonesia, during his state visit to the country, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said Wednesday.
“Next week the President, the delegation, will be going there. We will most likely raise this issue with the Indonesian officials and our concerns on this,” Manalo said during the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) presentation of its proposed 2023 budget before the House Committee on Appropriations.
Manalo made the statement to reassure Gabriela Party-list Representative Arlene Brosas, who asked about updates on death row cases abroad.
Veloso has been in detention in Indonesia due to drug trafficking charges. She denied the allegations and maintained that she was tricked by her recruiters to bring drugs contained in the seams of a suitcase.
Acting Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Jose de Vega said the DFA was able to stop the execution until the “very last moment” when it filed a case for illegal recruitment to show that Veloso was a victim.
“We have asked Indonesia to hold any execution because we are trying to show that she was a victim, not a perpetrator,” he said.
Veloso was supposed to be executed by firing squad in April 2015 but was spared due to the arrest of her recruiters in the Philippines.
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Brosas asked Manalo to continuously update Congress on death row cases, raising the alarm over the 65 cases mostly involving Filipino women.
