Mary Jane Veloso, a Philippine woman charged with drug trafficking in Indonesia, will return home and is expected to receive clemency after 14 years on death row.
The announcement was made in a statement yesterday by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who publicly thanked Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and his government for granting Manila’s longstanding request for Veloso, now 39, to serve her prison sentence in her own country.
“Mary Jane Veloso is coming home,” Marcos said in the statement, adding that the repatriation agreement was the fruit of “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 said. Marcos’s statement did not specify when Veloso would be flown back to the Philippines, but the Philippine leader said he looked forward to welcoming her home.
The decision, Marcos said, “is a reflection of the depth our nation’s partnership with Indonesia – united in a shared commitment to justice and compassion.”
Veloso, a domestic worker and mother of two from Nueva Ecija in central Luzon, was arrested in 2010 for trying to bring 2.6 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia. She was subsequently sentenced to death under Indonesia’s severe drug laws and transferred to Nusa Kambangan prison, on a small island off the south coast of Java, where she and eight other drug convicts were scheduled to be executed by firing squad. In 2015, she gained a last minute reprieve after Philippine officials asked Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to let her testify against members of a drug trafficking organization.
The eight other convicted drug traffickers were executed, including Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the ringleaders of the “Bali Nine,” a group of nine Australians arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin into Australia from the island of Bali.
Veloso has always maintained her innocence, claiming that she was tricked into carrying the drugs. As Rappler explains, Veloso was asked by her godsister to fly to Yogyakarta, where she was promised work as a domestic servant. She was given a new suitcase to use and $500. She was arrested after airport authorities discovered heroin wrapped in foil hidden in the lining of the suitcase.
Veloso’s case quickly became a cause célèbre in the Philippines. Protesters held vigils and Catholic masses in order to demonstrate against her execution, and kept up a steady pressure on the government to secure her extradition, if not her release.
In a nation where economic privation has forced around 2.3 million people to travel abroad in search of work, Veloso’s situation was relatable to many people in the Philippines. Veloso’s legal team said that she had also previously served as a domestic worker in Dubai, but left to escape an abusive employer.
In his statement, Marcos described Veloso as a “victim of her circumstances.” “Mary Jane’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,” he said.
The Philippine government subsequently launched a decade-long campaign to allow Veloso to serve her prison sentence in the Philippines. Eduardo Jose de Vega, an undersecretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs told a news conference in Manila that the Philippines would discuss the legal terms of Veloso’s transfer with their Indonesian counterparts.
He said that the eventual goal was for Marcos to offer Veloso clemency, but that she would remain in prison after her return to the Philippines, as per the repatriation agreement. “We will commit to detain her until such time that we, in a mutual agreement [with Indonesia, decide] that she could be given clemency,” he told the press conference. He said he was confident that Indonesia would agree to the eventual grant of clemency.
According to the AP, Justice Department spokesperson Mico Clavano said that the department had filed criminal complaints, including for human trafficking, against the fraudulent Filipino recruiters who arranged for Veloso to work in Indonesia. She will serve as a crucial witness in the trial of these suspects when she returns to the Philippines, Clavano said.
The Indonesian side has also confirmed Veloso’s impending return. Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for law, human rights, and immigration, telling the Associated Press that Prabowo had given his approval for Veloso to return to the Philippines. He said that it was likely to happen next month, as long as several conditions were met. One was that she continue to serve the Indonesian court’s sentence on her return. The other was that the Philippines foot the bill for her repatriation.
Veloso’s mother Delia thanked Marcos for securing the return of her daughter to the Philippines.
“I am thankful to our President, for a very long time God listened to our prayers,” she said in a radio interview quoted by the Philippine Star. “I really hope that Mary Jane will be able to come home. I hope that she will not be imprisoned anymore.”