APPEAL FOR URGENT ACTION

Mary Jane Veloso is a 30-year-old Filipina mother-of-two sentenced to death by the Indonesian Supreme Court in April 2010 for drug trafficking.

Veloso’s case was submitted for judicial review but her appeal was rejected by the Indonesian Supreme Court last March 26, 2014. News reports state that Indonesia is preparing to transfer Veloso from the city of Yogyakarta to the maximum security prison in Nusakambangan Island of Central Java to await execution by firing squad.

Veloso was a domestic worker in Dubai from 2009 to 2010. She left Dubai and came back to the Philippines after her employer attempted to rape her. On April 22, 2010, she was illegally recruited by a distant relative to work as a domestic worker in Malaysia.

When she arrived in Kuala Lumpur, the same person told her that the job was not available anymore and that she would instead be transferred to Indonesia. It was there that she found out that she was tricked into carrying luggage containing 2.6 kilos of heroin.

The Indonesian government plans to execute 10 convicted foreign drug traffickers, including Veloso, all at once. Their cases have drawn international flak for Indonesian Pres. Joko Widodo after he rejected pleas by the United Nations and various governments for their clemency.

UN Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns on extrajudicial executions had also appealed to Wododo to stop the executions on the basis that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported information
that suggests that Veloso and her 14 other fellow accused were convicted after unfair trials. The same report attested that all of them did not receive sufficient legal services or the right to translators, and had no legal representation at all stages of their trials.

Upon her arrest at the Jogjakarta airport, Veloso was not provided proper legal assistance. She was only provided a student translator during the course of her trial. She did not understand any of the proceedings.

Veloso’s case is yet another case of the Philippine government doing a little, too late. She was arrested in 2010 and was not assigned a lawyer until the last minute. Had it not been for the international criticism that accompanied her fellow foreign inmates’ cases, it can be argued that the Philippine government would have once again opted to keep her case hush to evade public censure. Such had been the Philippine government’s tact, it had so far failed to show transparency or accountability for failing to save the lives of Filipinos on death row.

Should Veloso’s execution push through, she would be the eighth Filipino executed under the present leadership of Benigno Aquino III, the most number of executions of Filipinos on death row under one regime since the Philippine labor export policy was implemented in the 1970s.

Veloso was a victim of large-scale international drug syndicates, of circumstance and of government neglect. The series of unjust executions of Filipinos on death row should be put to a stop.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

Send letters, emails or fax messages calling on:

• Indonesian Pres. Joko Widodo to grant Mary Jane Veloso clemency on grounds of a mistrial and for humanitarian reasons. Letters may be coursed through respective Indonesian embassies.
• Philippine Pres. Benigno Aquino III to exhaust all means to save Mary Jane Veloso’s life and demand to know why Mary Jane Veloso and otherslike her were deprived of proper leg al assistance by the PH government.
• The Philippine government to hunt down and prosecute Mary Jane Veloso’s illegal recruiter, “Cristina”, who remains at large to this day. “Cristina” is also said to be harassing and threatening Veloso’s family.
• The United Nations to investigate why there have been the most number of executions that pushed through under the Aquino regime.
• Migrants’ and human rights-based organizations to appeal for clemency for Mary Jane Veloso.

Sign the petition calling on Pres. Widodo to stop the executions in Indonesia: http://www.amnesty.org.au/action/action/36419/ [1]

Like and circulate to all networks the Save the Life of Mary Jane Veloso Facebook page: www.fb.com/SaveMJVeloso [2]

You may send your communications to:

H.E. PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA JOKO WIDODO
Istana Merdeka
Jakarta Pusat 10110, Indonesia
Fax: +62 21 386 4816 /+62 21 344 2233
Email: ppid@setkab.go.id
Twitter: @jokowi_do2

H.E. PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES BENIGNO AQUINO III
Office: JP Laurel St., San Miguel, Manila, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph / opnet@ops.gov.ph
Twitter: @noynoyaquino

UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR CHRISTOF HEYNS ON EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS
Email: eje@ohchr.org

Please send a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our address below:

SAVE THE LIFE OF MARY JANE VELOSO
45 Cambridge St., Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines
Telefax: (+632) 9114910
Email: migrante2007@yahoo.com.ph
Facebook: fb.com/SaveMJVeloso [3], fb.com/migranteinternational [4]
Twitter: @migrante_intl

Dear friends and colleagues,

Greetings of peace!

On 25 February, 2015, President Benigno Aquino III, through Gen. Pio Catapang, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), declared all-out war against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF was accused of coddling suspected terrorists Abdulbasit Usman and more than 300 men allegedly trained by Zulkipli bin Hir (alias Marwan) in bomb-making.

The declaration came a month after residents in Mamasapano, Maguindanao forcibly evacuated due to the possibility of another clash between government forces and rebel groups in the area after the botched operations last January 25, 2015 that rendered dead 44 SAF-PNP commandos. While there was much hype over the death of the police commandos in  said operation, human rights violations against civilians were documented on the ground such as extrajudicial killing and frustrated extrajudicial killing, forced evacuation, destruction of properties, child rights violations and involvement of US personnel in the operations. (Please refer to the attached report of the People’s Fact Finding Mission February 2015)

On 27 February 2015, composite units of the 6th Infantry Division (2nd Mechanized Battalion, 8th Marine Battalion Landing Team, 33rd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, 45th IBPA, Scout Ranger, 1stMechanized Battalion, Special Forces, 601st IBPA, 602nd IBPA, and 603rd IBPA) and Philippine National Police Regional Office units in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) launched ground and aerial attacks in Salbo, Pagatin, Mamasapano and Shariff Aguak towns in Maguindanao where the military targets were supposedly located. Prior to this, on 21 February, the 7th IBPA launched an artillery attack in Pikit, North Cotabato.

Since the Philippine government launched the all-out offensive against the BIFF, the ARMM-Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team (ARMM-HEART) has documented 123, 537 persons or 24, 714 families (as of March 13, 2015) displaced in the 11 municipalities in Maguindanao because of the ongoing military operations. Most of them left their homes and are now in cramped evacuation centers or their relatives’ houses —sick, hungry, and traumatized.

Initial documentation of Karapatan and partner organizations in the area indicate various forms of human rights and international humanitarian law violations committed by state agents in the implementation of the government’s all-out war. Documented violations include forced evacuation and divestment of properties due to heavy military presence, indiscriminate firing, shelling of mortars, and aerial bombing that resulted to destruction of properties of civilians. Indiscriminate firing of military troops also resulted in wounding of civilians or frustrated extrajudicial killing. Civilians also experienced threat, harassment, and intimidation by soldiers encamped in public and religious structures in the communities.

On March 26, 2015, Gen. Catapang announced that the military’s all out offensives will last until June this year.

Karapatan is appealing for your support for the thousands of civilians displaced because of the military’s all-out war. The evacuees are in need of food, medicines (for diarrhea, upper respiratory tract infection, hypertension, coughs and cold, fever), clothes, laundry soap, sleeping mats and potable water. They also need slippers and change of clothes, especially the children with infected wounds. Karapatan will join the 2nd Peace and Humanitarian Mission of its Mindanao partner organizations in April 2015 to deliver the aforementioned forms of support. You may email us at karapatan@karapatan.org for details on how your support can be sent.

We appeal to you to send letters of concern to agencies of the Philippine Government to call for the following:

1. Stop the all-out war against the Bangsamoro people,
2. Immediately pull-out the military troops from civilian communities,
3. Stop threats and harassment against civilians
4. Provide immediate sufficient relief assistance for the evacuees (food, medicines, etc.) and rehabilitate displaced civilians and destroyed public infrastructures.
5. Immediately investigate the military airstrikes and combat operations in the affected communities,
6. Indemnify the victims of human rights and international humanitarian law violations
7. The Philippine Government to withdraw its counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan, which victimizes innocent and unarmed civilians, and
8. The Philippine Government to be reminded that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments’ provisions.

Please send your letters to the following:

E. Benigno S. Aquino III
President of the Philippines
2/F Bonifacio Hall, Malacañang, Manila
Tel: 733-3010 loc 882/ 887
Website: president.gov.ph

Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7/F Agustin I Building,
F. Ortigas Jr. Road,
Ortigas Center, Pasig City
Tel: 6360701 to 06 / 637-6083
Fax: 638-2216
Email: stqd@opapp.net
Website: opapp.gov.ph

Secretary Leila M. de Lima
Department of Justice (DOJ)
DOJ Main Building,
Padre Faura Street, Manila
Tel: 521-1908
Fax: 523-5548
Email: doj.delime@gmail.com
Website: doj.gov.ph

Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin
Department of National Defense (DND)
DND Building, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City
Tel: 911-6193 / 911-1746
Fax 911-6213
Website: dnd.gov.ph

Hon.  Loretta Ann P. Rosales
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Building, UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email:   chair.rosales.chr@gmail.com, lorettann@gmail.com

And to the Philippine embassies and consulate offices in your respective countries

Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our address below.

Thank you very much and our deepest appreciation for your solidarity.

Sincerely yours,

(sgd) Marie Hilao Enriquez
Chairperson, Karapatan

(sgd) Cristina Palabay
Secretary General, Karapatan

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman,
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.