ASIA / PACIFIC
July 20, 2015
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
Pacquiao seeks mercy for Filipino
on death row in Indonesia
By Oliver Teves
The Associated Press
ANILA, The Philippines — Boxing icon Manny
Pacquiao prayed with a Filipino woman on
death row in Indonesia and promised to appeal
for clemency in the latest bid from her country to save her.
Pacquiao and his wife, Jinkee, spent about an hour with
Mary Jane Veloso in mid-July at a Yogyakarta jail.
Veloso was sentenced to death for drug trafficking after
heroin was found hidden in her luggage at the Yogyakarta
airport in 2010. She was granted a last minute stay of
execution in April, but eight other convicts — two
Australians, four Nigerians, a Brazilian, and an
Indonesian — were executed.
“Mary Jane gave Pacquiao a scarf with his name,
‘Pacman,’ written on it. She made it on her own when she
heard Pacquiao would visit her. She also gave him a ring,”
said Dwi Prasetyo Santoso, chief of Yogyakarta’s Ministry
of Law and Human Rights.
Two judicial reviews have failed to overturn Veloso’s
conviction and death sentence, and “an appeal for
clemency may be stronger” than a third review, said Edre
Olalia of the Public Interest Law Center in Manila and a
lawyer for her family.
In a bid to prove that Veloso was unaware she was
carrying drugs, the Philippine Department of Justice is
preparing to file human-trafficking, illegal-job-recruit-
ment, and fraud charges against a woman who allegedly
brought Veloso to Malaysia, where she was given a bag
that held 5.7 pounds of heroin. The woman has
surrendered to police and admitted that Veloso didn’t
know about the drugs.
In Jakarta, Indonesia’s house speaker Setya Novanto
said Pacquiao will visit the Indonesian parliament to
thank the government for Veloso’s reprieve. Pacquiao is
also a member of the Philippine congress and vice chair-
man of a congressional committee on overseas Filipinos.
Novanto said he will try to arrange a meeting between
Pacquiao and President Joko Widodo.
The plight of Filipino workers overseas is a sensitive
M
ONLINE SUMMITS. Hikers climb up Mount Fuji on the Shizuoka
prefecture side in Fujinomiya, central Japan. Climbers reaching the sum-
mit of Mount Fuji are now able to share their achievement via free Wi-Fi.
A Japanese mobile-phone network says it is offering free Wi-Fi at eight
hotspots on Japan’s most famous mountain, including the 12,389-foot
summit. (Kyodo News via AP)
Japan launches free
Wi-Fi on Mount Fuji
TOKYO (AP) — Climbers who reach the summit of
Mount Fuji are now able to share their achievement via
free Wi-Fi.
A Japanese mobile-phone network is offering the
service at eight hotspots on Japan’s most famous
mountain, including the 12,389-foot summit.
The initiative is aimed at attracting more overseas
visitors to Shizuoka and Yamanashi, the two prefectures
that are home to Mount Fuji. From airports to subway and
bus operators, Japan has been expanding free Wi-Fi
service ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Users on Mount Fuji will need to enter a user ID and
password provided in fliers in English, Chinese, and
Korean distributed at some trailheads. NTT DOCOMO
Inc. provides the service for 72 hours from the initial
log-in.
Young Micronesian soccer side
overwhelmed at Pacific Games
By Dennis Passa
AP Sports Writer
he players were mostly teenagers,
many of them far away from their
villages in the Federated States of
Micronesia for the first time. And as it
turned out, it was the steepest of learning
curves in the Pacific Games soccer
tournament in Papua New Guinea.
The Micronesians lost the third of their
three matches at the Pacific Games 46-0 to
Vanuatu. That was preceded by a 38-0 loss
to Fiji and a 30-0 defeat to Tahiti — 114
goals in three matches. Jean Kaltak scored
16 goals for Vanuatu, which scored at the
rate of one goal every two minutes.
Micronesia coach Stan Foster said he
wasn’t surprised by the results.
“Most of these guys are in their late
teenage years and that’s why I selected
this team,” Foster told Radio New Zealand
in Port Moresby, the Papua New Guinean
capital, after the Vanuatu loss. “A bit of
criticism I got before we left was (for)
picking a younger squad, but it’s no use
picking older players who won’t be around
for the next four (years).”
“Most of them have never been out of
their villages let alone on to another
island. I took them to Guam the other day
(and it was) the first time they’ve been on
an elevator or an escalator. It’s been a huge
step-up for these guys and they’ve just
been overawed really.”
Those villages Foster refers to are on
four island states spread across 60 miles in
the western Pacific Ocean — Yap, Chuuk,
Pohnpei, and Kosrae. They sit about 1,800
miles north of the eastern Australian coast
and about 2,500 miles southwest of the
main islands of Hawai’i.
The islands, which use American
currency because it is a U.S. “associated
state,” have no organized soccer and often
T
only get practice matches against teams
from visiting ships. They are not a member
of the Oceania confederation or the
Fédération Internationale de Football
Association (FIFA), so the only funding to
help develop their approximately 500
players, mostly from school teams,
comes from international agencies like
the United Nations.
Foster said most of his team played in
only seven-a-side teams and that the
Pacific Games marked the first time many
of them played on a pitch with 11 players.
The Pacific Games is an under-23
tournament, so the scores won’t count as
any type of international record for the
most goals scored in a match. That mark
still belongs to Australia: Archie
Thompson scored 13 goals when the
Socceroos beat American Samoa 31-0 in
2001 in an Oceania qualifying match for
the 2002 World Cup.
Social media wasn’t around in 2001 to
help spread news of the big Australian
win, and predictably Twitter was active
with news of the huge Micronesian losses.
The official Pacific Games website even
re-tweeted a note from a New Zealand
radio network which pointed out that
Micronesia conceded more goals in three
matches than Lionel Messi scored in the
past two years (84).
“These are a team of boys and they’re
playing against men,” Foster said after his
team’s final lopsided loss. “But the
makings are there. If we just to stick to our
development, I’m sure we can join the
other teams.”
“We didn’t have high expectations,”
Foster added, admitting that he told his
players before they left not to worry about
the scores of any of their matches.
Which, as it turned out, was probably a
good thing.
SEEKING CLEMENCY. Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, sec-
ond from left, and his wife Jinkee, right, sit with their compatriot, Mary
Jane Veloso, who is currently on death row for drug offenses, during a
visit at Wirogunan Prison in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. (AP Photo)
issue in the country where about a tenth of its 100 million
people leave their homeland in search of jobs and better
opportunities. The Philippines does not have a death
penalty.
“We welcome all efforts that will help Mary Jane,” said
Charles Jose, spokesman for the Department of Foreign
Affairs.
Migrante, a group helping Filipino overseas workers,
said Pacquiao’s visit “reflects the just and growing global
demand that Mary Jane be granted clemency and be
brought home to her family in the Philippines.”
Before his megabout with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in
May, Pacquiao promised to visit Veloso and meet with the
Indonesian president to personally appeal for her life.
Footage from the prison showed Pacquiao’s wife tearful
during the meeting with Veloso. The champion held back
his own emotions, but teared up after the meeting where
the bible-quoting boxer joined others in a prayer for
Veloso, Manila Radio DZMM reported.
He also gave Veloso some money, prison warden Zaenal
Arifin said.
Associated Press writer Ali Kotarumalos in
Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this story.