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| Mrs. Celia Veloso |
We all had a sigh
of relief when Mary Jane Veloso was not called to face the gruesome Indonesian
firing squad a few nights ago. Her plight in a foreign land and her pending
execution for alleged drug trafficking moved us, and captured our sympathetic
hearts.
But not for long…..
Mary Jane is the
principal character in this real life drama. But someone is set to steal the
limelight away from her – Mrs. Celia Veloso, her own mother no less.
After all the
hullabaloo, Celia Veloso unleashed a tirade against the Aquino government,
which left me stunned and puzzled at the same time, for I never expected such grandstanding attitude from her. And to make matters worse, her unbecoming
behavior has rubbed off on the other members of their family.
The Veloso family
now has metamorphosed into a bunch of boastful tigers, from being a cluster of
scared cats during the days leading to Mary Jane’s execution.
They are giving
the credit to the taumbayan for the
reversal of misfortune of their daughter. Yes, we all prayed for Mary Jane and
wished that she will be spared from death knowing the fishy circumstance behind
her arrest for drug trafficking. But supposing the government did not
intervene, will our prayers still be answered?
Obviously, the
Veloso family is downplaying the role of our President and the efforts made by
the government in the deferment of Mary Jane’s execution. For what reason, I
don’t have any inkling whatsoever.
The government may
have had mishaps in the handling of Mary Jane’s case, but it was able to
deliver the goods nonetheless – the deferment of her execution and the
reopening of her case for further investigation.
We cannot afford
to belittle the efforts of our President. First, he personally appealed the
matter to President Joko Widodo of Indonesia during the ASEAN summit held
recently in Kuala Lumpur. Secondly, PNOY broke protocol by descending political
hierarchy in order to speak to Indonesia’s foreign affairs minister.
Ideally, PNOY
should have spoken only to his counterpart – President Widodo. But since he
wanted the appeal to be expedited, he talked directly to the foreign affairs
minister which was considered a breach of protocol.
And thirdly, PNOY
suggested that Mary Jane be turned into a state witness instead against the
drug syndicate that victimized her, and such proposal was duly heard by the
Indonesian government.
I am not saying
that the Veloso family should thank PNOY to the heavens for what he has done.
But at least, they should have shown some courtesy and decency by giving the President
some due credit for the extraordinary measures he has done.
As I have mentioned,
the government may have committed slip-ups in its efforts to save Mary Jane
which may not have appeared palatable to her family. But ultimately, what is far more important
is that PNOY’s government was able to bring forth the expected deliverables.
After appearing to
be defiant and ungrateful, Celia Veloso and her family are on the verge of losing
the sympathetic support of their fellow Filipinos. Her mouthful of harsh words against
the Aquino government definitely left a bad taste in the mouth of many
Filipinos, so to speak.
But this whole
thing is about Mary Jane, the principal character. So let us just continue to
pray for her, that at the end of the day, she will be accorded the justice she
rightfully deserves.
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