FREEDOM FOR MARY JANE People visiting the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Health in Baclaran, Para帽aque City, sign a petition seeking clemency for Mary Jane Veloso, whose death sentence for her drug trafficking conviction was commuted by the Indonesian government. 鈥擱ichard A. Reyes
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� A proposal by a Department of Justice (DOJ) official to apply the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law to Mary Jane Veloso will be 鈥減roblematic and unfair,鈥� as it would require her to serve a minimum prison time of 20 years, her lawyer said on Monday.
鈥淸This means] that she has to wait for another six years to be able to qualify for the benefit of GCTA and possibly parole,鈥� Edre Olalia, chair of the National Union of Peoples鈥� Lawyers (NUPL), said in a statement.
After 14 years behind bars in Indonesia, nine of which she spent on death row for a drug trafficking conviction, Veloso returned home on Dec. 18 after the Indonesian government approved the transfer of her custody to the Philippines following the commutation of her death sentence to life imprisonment.
In the Philippines, life imprisonment, or 鈥渞eclusion perpetua,鈥� totals 40 years.
The mother of two was arrested in Yogyakarta in 2010 after 2.6 kilos of heroin were found concealed in her suitcase. She claimed the drugs were put there by her recruiters.
She received a last-minute reprieve from execution in 2015 after then-President Benigno Aquino III appealed to then-President Joko Widodo of Indonesia to let her testify against her alleged traffickers.
Seeking clemency
On her return to the Philippines, Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez said Veloso could seek clemency or apply for parole by getting good conduct credits from her 14-year incarceration in Indonesia.
GCTA allows the reduction of prison terms based on good conduct and exemplary behavior.
Bureau of Corrections Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said his office would form a board to study whether Veloso was eligible for GCTA and whether her prison time in Indonesia could be credited.
On the same day she returned to the country, Veloso sought executive clemency from President Marcos, insisting that she was innocent.
鈥淢y plea to President [Marcos] is for him to grant me clemency so I can be with my family. I鈥檝e been in prison for [almost] 15 years in Indonesia for a crime I didn鈥檛 commit,鈥� Veloso told journalists at the Correctional Institution for Women, where she was immediately taken upon her arrival from Jakarta.
The President, who acknowledged that Indonesia did not set any conditions on Veloso鈥檚 return, said that legal experts needed to study her request 鈥渢o determine whether the vision of clemency is appropriate.鈥�
Humanitarian grounds
But Olalia underscored the President鈥檚 sole power and prerogative to grant absolute pardon in Veloso鈥檚 case, based on humanitarian, not legal, grounds.
He said the President could overrule any finding by the Board of Pardons and Parole or legal experts.
鈥淚n fact, this constitutional power is beyond the ambit of the courts and does not need legislative concurrence (unlike amnesty),鈥� Olalia said.
Lawyer and legal luminary Romulo Macalintal said that Marcos could not use his pardoning power under the Constitution as it applied only to criminals convicted under Philippine laws.
Macalintal said that Veloso should instead be released from custody 鈥渟ince she is not facing any charges here in the Philippines鈥� and because no warrant of arrest has even been issued against her by any Philippine court.
According to NUPL, the next hearing of the criminal cases for qualified human trafficking, illegal recruitment, and estafa, which were filed in the Regional Trial Court of Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija, against Veloso鈥檚 recruiters, has been set for Feb. 19, 2025.
鈥淪he is the complainant and last witness for the prosecution,鈥� the group said.