Pacquiao pleads for Indonesia to spare death row Filipina

World boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao took time out Monday from final preparations for his $400 million megafight with Floyd Mayweather to plead for the life of a Filipina on death row in Indonesia.

Pacquiao, a national hero in the Philippines, added his voice to a chorus of global opposition led by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the executions of a group of eight foreign drug convicts, including compatriot Mary Jane Veloso.

The eight-division world champion, who will face unbeaten American Mayweather in the richest fight in boxing history in Las Vegas on Saturday, appealed to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to spare Veloso from the firing squad.

“I am begging and knocking at your kind heart that your excellency grant executive clemency to her by sparing her life and saving her from execution,” Pacquiao, who is also a Philippines congressman, told his country’s GMA News TV in a video call from his Los Angeles training camp.

“On May 2nd, I will be fighting in Las Vegas, Nevada against Floyd Mayweather, which is considered the fight of the century. It will be a great morale booster, if in my own little way, I can save a life,” a solemn-looking Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao’s statement came just hours after Veloso’s 55-year-old mother, Celia, made a desperate and tear-laden appeal for the ring icon known as the “National Fist” in the Philippines to help her daughter.

“Manny, please help save my daughter. Please speak up. Any word from you will help greatly because you are very popular in Indonesia,” she said on Manila radio station dzMM.