December 23, 2024
H.E. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr.
President of the Republic of the Philippines
[email protected]
Subject: Migrante Canada’s Christmas Appeal for the Grant of Executive Clemency for Mary Jane Veloso
Dear Mr. President,
We write to you, in the spirit of the Christmas season, to grant MARY JANE VELOSO executive clemency.
We ask this because the power of executive clemency is your sole power and prerogative as the President. We ask that you grant this to MARY JANE VELOSO on humanitarian grounds. Mr. President, it is a power that you wield alone, anything else can only be recommendatory or advisory.
As Migrante Canada, the alliance of Filipino organizations across Canada, we have followed her case since she was arrested in 2010 and campaigned for her release. Last week, during International Migrants Day (Dec 18, Philippine time), our members in Migrante Canada, like so many overseas Filipinos, joined the hundreds of thousands of our kababayan who cheered when she landed in Manila, after 14 years of imprisonment in Indonesia.
But Mr. President, it was a journey from one prison to another.
Migrante Canada asks that you grant MARY JANE VELOSO full, immediate and absolute clemency, which is in your power to do.
We ask that you grant MARY JANE VELOSO the freedom to hold and embrace her sons, Darren and Daniel, and her aging parents, Nanay Celia and Tatay Cesar, not as a prisoner in the visiting hall of the Women’s Correctional, but as a free woman.
We also know that the five Australians who were part of the Bali 9 death row convicts were also transferred from Indonesia to Australia on Dec 15. After 19 years in prison, all of them were immediately freed by the Australian government. Unlike Mary Jane Veloso who was imprisoned upon her repatriation.
Mr. President, Executive Clemency for Mary Jane would be the biggest gift of the season.
Maligayang Pasko po sa inyo, kay First Lady Liza, at sa inyong mga anak na si Sandro, Joseph at Vinny.
Respectfully yours,
Chris Sorio, Secretary-General of Migrante Canada
Danilo de Leon, Chair of Migrante Canada
#ClemencyForMaryJane
Member Organizations and Chapters of Migrante Canada
Migrante British Columbia | Migrante Alberta | Kabisig Society of Fort Saskatchewan | Alberta Careworkers Association (ACA) | Migrante Manitoba | Migrante Ontario | Pilipinong Migrante sa Barrie (PMB) | Philippine Advancement Through Arts and Culture (PATAC) | Migrante Ottawa | Philippine Migrant Society of Canada (PMSC) | Filipino Parents Association of Quebec | Migrante Quebec | Pinay Quebec | Radyo Migrante
Cc:
Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo, Supreme Court of the Philippines
[email protected] | [email protected]
Jesus Crispin Remulla, Secretary of the Department of Justice
[email protected]
Leah Tanodra-Armamento, Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights
[email protected]
