In appealing to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to seek clemency for Mary Jane Veloso, an overseas worker from Nueva Ecija languishing in death row in Indonesia for smuggling heroin into that country, her father, Cesar, said that the two previous presidents were unable to help with the case.
This is false.
In a Sept. 4 interview on ABS-CBN News, the older Veloso said:
“Talagang pinaglalaban po namin ‘yan. Sana huwag naman niya po pababayaan dahil pangatlong presidente na po siya; ang dalawa walang nagawa. Ang pag-asa na lang namin, siya.”
(We are really fighting for that. We hope he doesn’t abandon the case because he is the third president; the previous two were unable to do anything. He’s our only hope now.)
Source: ABS-CBN News, Mary Jane Veloso’s father recounts family’s struggle due to her imprisonment, Sept. 4, 2022
In another interview the next day on DZMM TeleRadyo program SRO, Veloso claimed he was unaware of efforts made by former president Benigno Aquino III to save his daughter from the death sentence issued by an Indonesian court in 2010. He said:
“Pero hindi po namin nabalitaan na umapela po siya.”
(But we didn’t know that he sent an appeal.)
Source: ABS-CBN News, SRO | Teleradyo (5 September 2022), Sept. 5, 2022, watch from 59:51 to 59:56
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