Marcos says he's open to clemency for Veloso

(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is open to granting clemency to Filipina death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso once she returns to the Philippines. Marcos issued the statement after various groups urged the government to grant Veloso "immediate clemency" upon her return to the country. "We will see. It's not clear as to what it really is. This is the first time this has happened. So, everything is on the table," Marcos said in an ambush interview in Nueva Ecija when asked about the possible clemency for Veloso. Clemency is the act of granting mercy to a convicted individual, typically given by an executive authority. Marcos said the Philippine government has been working on Veloso's case for years, noting that her sentence has been commuted from death to life imprisonment. "As I said, we have been working on this, all the previous presidents, not only me.... It's been 10 years. What we have done is we were able to have her sentence commuted from death to life imprisonment," Marcos said. "Then what followed was that we were able to send her home. We will have to decide what will happen next," he added. On Wednesday, Marcos announced that Veloso was "coming home" after Indonesia agreed to the request to transfer her to the Philippines. The now 39-year-old mother of two was arrested and sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2010 for drug trafficking. She made headlines in 2015 when she was given a last minute reprieve from execution following a personal appeal by then-president Benigno Aquino III to the Indonesian government. Details of Veloso's return to the Philippines were still being finalized, but Philippine authorities hope that she may be able to go home in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, Marcos said Manila's relations with Jakarta have been good, noting that the Indonesian government has no plan to further detain and execute Veloso. He also highlighted the cooperation of both former Indonesian president Joko Widodo and current President Prabowo Subianto in finding a resolution. "It's good that our relations with Indonesia, our relations with then-president Widodo and all of these people, together with our relations now with the new president, President Prabowo, our relations are good, they made this happen, this is the first time they did this," Marcos said. "They said they have no intention to detain or execute Mary Jane Veloso. That's why they said let's just look for other ways. We should thank Indonesia; we should thank the last president, the current president, President Widodo and President Prabowo, because if they did not agree, we will not be able to do this," he added. In a Palace briefing on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said the Indonesian government was open to allowing Marcos to grant Veloso clemency. The Philippines on Thursday vowed to honor the conditions set by Indonesia for the transfer of Veloso to the country, including the serving of her sentence. This promise was contained in a joint statement of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), hours after President Marcos said Indonesia commuted Veloso's sentence to life imprisonment during the term of Widodo. "We are bound to honor the conditions that would be set for the transfer, particularly the service of sentence by Mary Jane in the Philippines, save the death penalty which is prohibited under our laws," the DOJ and the DFA said. "The conditions for the transfer of Ms. Mary Jane Veloso are still being discussed with Indonesia," it added. Meanwhile, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said the authorities should protect Veloso from the alleged human trafficking syndicate that victimized her. "The authorities should give proper attention to the safety and life of Mary Jane," Hontiveros said in Filipino during a briefing on Thursday. "If we are able to save her life from the death punishment in another country, we must protect her life and safety here in our own country because she had been a victim of human trafficking," she said.