(UPDATE) MARY Jane Veloso, the overseas Filipino worker who has been on death row in Indonesia for over a decade, is coming home, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced Wednesday.
In a statement, Marcos thanked Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and the Indonesian government for their “goodwill.”
“Mary Jane Veloso is coming home. Arrested in 2010 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to death, Mary Jane’s case has been a long and difficult journey,” Marcos said.
LONG JOURNEY HOME Filipina drug convict and death row prisoner Mary Jane Veloso, clad in traditional Indonesian attire, smiles during a program celebrating Kartini Day in honor of Indonesian national heroine and women’s rights activist Raden Kartini at Yogyakarta prison on April 23, 2016. Veloso was sentenced to death in Indonesia on drug charges but will be handed over to the Philippines following years of negotiations, President Ferdinand Marcos said on Nov. 20, 2024, calling it a ‘long and difficult journey.’ PHOTO BY SURYO WIBOWO/AFP
“After over a decade of diplomacy and consultations with the Indonesian government, we managed to delay her execution long enough to reach an agreement to finally bring her back to the Philippines,” he added.
Marcos said Veloso’s story “resonates with many: a mother trapped by the grip of poverty, who made one desperate choice that altered the course of her life.”
“While she was held accountable under Indonesian law, she remains a victim of her circumstances,” Marcos said.
“This outcome is a reflection of the depth of our nation’s partnership with Indonesia — united in a shared commitment to ‘justice’ and ‘compassion.’ Thank you, Indonesia. We look forward to welcoming Mary Jane home,” he added.
Veloso, now 39, has been on Indonesia’s death row for a quarter of her life. She was arrested in 2010 after Indonesian authorities found 2.6 kg of heroin in her suitcase. She was later sentenced to death by firing squad.
Veloso said she was unaware of the contents of her luggage as it was only given by her recruiters, identified as Julius Lacanilao and Maria Cristina Sergio.
The mother-of-two’s case sparked an uproar in the Philippines, with her family and supporters saying she was innocent and had been set up by an international drug syndicate.
They maintained she was duped into signing up for a non-existent job abroad as a domestic worker and was not aware the suitcase her recruiter gave her contained hidden drugs.
The Philippine government won a last-minute reprieve for Veloso in 2015 after a woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking, for which Veloso was named as a prosecution witness.
At a Palace press conference, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said there was no written agreement yet between the Philippines and Indonesia regarding Veloso’s repatriation.
“If you mean a written agreement, there’s no answer so far. But they are the ones who approached us to talk about this, so we’re extremely confident that it will happen,” de Vega said.
“Certainly, our President must be privy [to] information which would explain his confidence. So let’s just say that we’re just going to fine-tune the details,” he added.
The DFA official also said that the Indonesian government did not ask anything in return for Veloso’s transfer.
“And the very fact that Miss Veloso is still alive this very day is a tribute to the work that our government has been doing for over a decade, but also to the warm ties of friendship and cooperation between the Philippines and Indonesia, and we are very grateful for this,” he said.
De Vega said Veloso would still be detained upon returning to the Philippines but was hoping she would be granted clemency.
“There are two options: we will request, while she’s here, for the official release from detention, from the Indonesian Criminal Procedure system, or another one [or] they will allow our President to issue the clemency on the basis that she’s been here,” he said.
De Vega said the Philippine government was respecting Indonesia’s jurisdiction over Veloso’s case and was grateful that it had allowed her transfer to the Philippine prison.
But the DFA official also said that it was going to be “a bonus” if Jakarta would allow President Marcos to issue the clemency.
“The goal would be not just for her to be transferred but for the president to be able to issue clemency,” he said.
De Vega said that Veloso would be back in the country once the Indonesian government formally permitted her return.
“When she gets here, she will not immediately be released. It means we will commit to detain her until such time that we have mutual agreement that she could be given clemency. But at least she would be here,” de Vega said.
“The bottom line, once she’s here, we are at least assured that there’ll be no death penalty; they do not issue the death penalty. We do not have the death penalty, and we would, under principles of international humanitarian law, have some right to refuse if Indonesians would request her back, but that’s precisely a sign that they are not interested in executing Miss Veloso and we thank them for that,” he added.
Justice Department spokesman Mico Clavano said the National Bureau of Investigation would pick up Veloso upon her return to the country, and she would be detained at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
But he said that the legal custody of Veloso would remain with Indonesia even after her return to the Philippines.
“The legal custody will remain with Indonesia because we are asked to respect their laws and jurisprudence. However, physical custody will be with the Philippines,” Clavano said during the same Palace briefing.
“However, the Indonesian government is aware that we do not have the death penalty here, which they also respect,” he added.
Indonesia’s law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said President Prabowo Subianto had “approved the transfer of prisoner policy” on Veloso’s case.
He added that the transfer was likely to take place next month.
Private lawyers of Veloso said they were “exultant” after receiving the news that she would be heading home.
National Union of People’s Lawyers chairman Edre Olalia thanked the migrant and church groups from the Philippines and Indonesia and those “who did not lose faith.”
“We express our appreciation to the Indonesian government for this exemplary act of goodwill,” he said. “We acknowledge the initiative of the present Philippine authorities in pursuing this political and diplomatic arrangement.”
The group called on President Marcos to grant clemency to Veloso once she returned to the country.
“Even as we continue to pray that Mary Jane will really step foot back in our homeland soon, we call on President Marcos to accord her immediate clemency on humanitarian grounds and as a matter of justice,” Olalia’s statement read.
Migrante International, which also pushed for Veloso’s freedom, welcomed the news and urged clemency for a victim of human trafficking.
Former Bayan Muna representative Carlos Zarate also called on Marcos to extend a pardon to the OFW.
“Mary Jane Veloso has suffered immensely for over a decade, a victim of a cruel system that exploits the vulnerable. It is high time for justice and compassion to prevail,” he said.
“Though with guarded optimism, we welcome the impending return of Mary Jane Veloso to the Philippines. But this is not over with her return though and the justice system here must work overtime so that she can immediately be freed, and those responsible for setting her up should be made fully accountable,” Zarate added.
Former senator Leila de Lima congratulated the Marcos administration for the return of Veloso, whose plight “traversed administrations.”
De Lima also mentioned that in 2015, during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, the Department of Justice under her watch and the Department of Foreign Affairs worked on a last-minute reprieve for Veloso after a phone call between Aquino and then-Indonesian president Joko Widodo.
“Congratulations to the [Marcos] administration for Mary Jane’s impending return to the Philippines after years of waiting in Indonesia’s death row. It’s important to save even just one life because a single death is always one death too many,” the former justice secretary said.
Veloso’s recruiters, Ma. Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2020 for illegal recruitment charges filed by three other victims.
RED MENDOZA, BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO
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