Duterte said he couldn’t beg Indonesian to spare Mary Jane due to his anti-drug policy
President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday he could not beg Indonesia to spare a Filipino drug convict as it would run counter on his policy against illegal drugs.
In a speech in Villamor Air Base, Duterte said he discussed with Indonesian President Joko Widodo during his visit there last week regarding his fight on drug menace.
He said Indonesia has 4 million drug users compared to about 3.7 million in the Philippines .
Duterte said he told his Indonesian counterpart that "it's good that you have death penalty here. At least you can bring it (drug cases) down to the barest minimum."
"I said go ahead and implement the law. I never, we never mentioned about (Mary Jane) Veloso. I just said we will respect the judgments of your courts. Period," he said, referring to a Filipina, who was convicted in Yogyakarta after she was caught in the airport for transporting illegal drugs.
"It would have been a bad taste in the mouth to be talking about having a strong posture against drugs and here you are begging for something," Duterte stressed.
Duterte declared an all-out war against illegal drugs since he became president on June 30.
A news report from Jakarta said Duterte has given his go signal for Indonesia to execute Veloso, a convicted drug trafficker.
Her execution was indefinitely suspended when then President Benigno Aquino III appealed to Indonesia in April 2015 her life be spared after a Filipino couple who allegedly duped her to be a drug courier was apprehended. Celerina Monte
