President Joko Widodo welcomes Philippine President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. at the presidential palace in Bogor, West Java on Sept. 5. (Photo: Cabinet Secretariat)
Rights groups and Church leaders have urged government leaders of Indonesia and the Philippines to take up the case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino migrant worker on death row in Indonesia, during their upcoming bilateral meeting in Jakarta.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is in Indonesia on Sept. 4-6 during which he met with President Joko Widodo.
“We hope that President Widodo and President Marcos will not only discuss business cooperation and state security but also discuss the protection and working conditions of migrants by using their diplomatic power,” said a statement issued by 36 human rights organizations and three individuals.
The statement said Veloso is a “victim of human trafficking and drug syndicates” and hence “it is not appropriate for the state to punish the victim.”
Veloso was sentenced to death by an Indonesian court in 2010 after being caught at Yogyakarta's Adi Sucipto Airport in possession of 2.6 kilograms of heroin wrapped inside an aluminum foil. Throughout her trial, she maintained her innocence.
She was to be executed in 2015 along with dozens of other people, but the execution was canceled amid international pressure to allow her to testify against her alleged recruiters who face charges in the Philippines.
The statement sought that Veloso is given “an opportunity to testify in the trial in the Philippines against her recruiters.”
Rights activists reminded that her case was similar to that of Merry Utami, a Catholic woman, who was also sentenced to death in 2002 after being arrested at Jakarta's Soekarno Hatta Airport because officers found heroin weighing 1.1 kg in her bag, which was said to have been deposited by her partner, a man from Nepal without her knowledge.
They said the two victims should “be protected and not punished,” and urged that they be released so they can return to their families.
Sister Laurentina Suharsih, a Catholic activist nun who supported the statement, said that Veloso, as well as Utami, “were victims of human trafficking.”
The nun told UCA News that she had met Utami in prison in 2015 and that is how she got me involved in the struggle to provide justice for them.
“Given that the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty, I also took part in the protests. I regret why until now the state has not taken a firm stance leaving the fate of the victims in limbo,” Sister Suharsih said.
Whether the Veloso case came up for discussion during the meeting of the two leaders at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, on Sept. 5, is not yet known.
The Inquirer reported that Marcos did not mention the Veloso case when he spoke to members of the Filipino community in Jakarta on Sept. 4.
Press Secretary Trixie Cruz Angeles told reporters that "maybe it will be discussed by one or both parties. We'll have to see."
