A WINDOW of opportunity has been opened for overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Mary Jane Veloso after she was granted a reprieve by the Indonesian government, which had set her execution Wednesday dawn. With the execution deferred, the Philippine government and organizations helping her has been given more time to focus on the appeal for clemency.
Veloso’s case though is but one of the many that government and concerned groups need to pay attention to. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has said that more than 80 Filipinos are on death row in some countries abroad. DFA spokesperson Charles Jose said that half of them were convicted for drug offenses and the other half for murder.
A recent abs-cbnnews.com report identified one of these Filipinos as Rose Dacanay Policarpio who was accused of killing her Lebanese employer in Saudi Arabia in 2013, a charge she denied. The DFA, though, has still to give additional details of the case.
As for Veloso, the administration of President Noynoy Aquino was accused of doing little and too late, especially in ensuring that she would be given adequate legal help. While the DFA denied the accusations, the truth is it is difficult to say when “adequate” is really adequate. What may be adequate for the government may be inadequate for the jailed, their family and support groups.
Still, it has been proven in the Veloso case that providing adequate legal assistance to Filipinos being charged abroad is an important concern. This is why Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed yesterday a bill seeking to amend Republic Act No. 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act and expand the legal assistance fund currently being managed by the DFA.
Unfortunately, Santiago is on medical leave and Congress has been slow in passing measures, lost as it is in other concerns like investigating issues of the day in aid of legislation. Santiago herself had complained of the failure of her colleagues in the Senate to act on pending bills seeking to protect OFWs.
Instead of grabbing credit for the reprieve given to Veloso, Malacañang and personalities and groups claiming to have supported her may have to exert pressure on our legislators to speed up the passage of bills like the one Santiago filed yesterday.