Unrepentant still

In what is a thinly-veiled attempt at explaining away her hateful and ungrateful statements about the President, Celia Veloso, mother of condemned drug mule Mary Jane said she was tired at the time she mouthed those words. Then playing to the hilt her news value on Mothers' Day, she said it must have been the pain in her mother's heart that made her spew those words, which triggered a maelstrom of negative reactions which could impact on Mary Jane's case if and when Indonesia decides to execute her.

To recall, the Veloso matriarch proclaimed upon arrival from Indonesia after her daughter was given temporary reprieve from what would have been sure death by firing squad: “Dumating na kami dito sa Pilipinas para maningil. Maniningil kami … sa gobyerno dahil hanggang sa huli, niloko pa rin kami (We came home to collect from the government that, until the end, had tricked us),”

She despised the President and called for his resignation, taking him to task for allegedly taking credit for the temporary reprieve.

Reaction against Veloso was swift, with not a few even saying the mother, not the daughter, should be executed. In a country where utang na loob has a premium, Veloso may have touched on a very raw national nerve and in the process compromised her daughter's case. I doubt if she will draw the same national support, emotionally and even financially, the second time around. Already, there are people who are pointing out the fact that the Velosos shouldn't blame anyone for their predicament considering that MJ's case had been properly investigated, tried and examined by the Indonesian government according to its laws. In other words, yes, we expect our government to come to our rescue when we find ourselves in sticky situations abroad, but we understand it cannot do everything that it wants.

Yes, the government has a responsibility to care for its citizens, but by golly, we also have to be individually responsible for ourselves MJ and her family should not expect this government to move heaven and earth, although yes it has moved the earth in her case and won her temporary liberty. Besides, she is not the only one on death row in a foreign land – there are several other Pinoys who need our help.

Now, the elder Veloso and her handlers must have already realized how her words have backfired and would like to find a way out of it. The problem is, I think they've also decided to find a way out without having to apologize for what she said of the President.

The thing it, that stinging rebuke of the President is at the the very heart of why her statement was venomous and hateful and unreasonably so.

She cannot diminish the gravity of her statement by simply explaining it away. She has to take back what she said of the President, and even with that, we cannot be sure people will forgive her.

All this talk about her mother's love and concern, and how she was suffering fatigue and sleeplessness when she gave her famous interview will not convince us of her repentance.

After all, how can she claim fatigue at that time when she even went to the Labor Day and there continued her unwarranted tirade on the government and the President?*

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