Malacañang on Wednesday confirmed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is “seriously considering” the grant of absolute pardon to Mary Jane Veloso, the overseas Filipino worker who was convicted in Indonesia but is serving a sentence for drug trafficking here.
Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Palace press officer Claire Castro connfirmed the statement of Bataan 2nd District Representative Albert Raymond Garcia, who sponsored the proposed budget of the Office of the President at the House of Representatives on Tuesday night.
“Yung ico-confirm po namin, kinokonsedera yung pagbigigay…Kinokonsedera po yung pagbibigay ng absolute pardon, so yung timeline, kapag nandiyan na po, ‘saka ko sa inyo ibibigay,” Castro said in a press briefing.
She said the President received Veloso’s letter appealing for clemency.
“Sa simula po ay binabanggit na wala naman naging kasalanan, ‘si umano, si Mary Jane Veloso. So doon tayo mag-start,” Castro said, adding that Marcos need not inform Indonesia if Veloso is granted pardon.
She declined to share further details and said the matter is up to the President to decide.
Veloso was transferred to the Philippines from an Indonesian prison in December 2024, where she was detained since April 2010 following her arrest for allegedly transporting heroin in her luggage.
The District Court of Justice of Sieman In Yogjakarta meted a death sentence on Veloso, which was commuted in 2015 amid strong appeals from the government of then President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.
At present, Veloso is detained at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
f