Marcos floats 'punishment' in Philippines for Mary Jane Veloso to bring her home
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 12:12 p.m.) — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said he had offered that the Philippines can impose punishment on overseas Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso, who was convicted and detained in Indonesia. Veloso—who has claimed innocence—is a human trafficking victim, said migrant workers groups.
Marcos, who is currently in Labuan Bajo in Indonesia for the 42nd ASEAN Summit, said that the government is nudging Indonesia for Velsoso’s “commutation or even a pardon or extradition back to the Philippines.”
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega told Philstar.com in a message that the department is “looking for a diplomatic solution so that she [Veloso] could be pardoned and allowed to return to the Philippines."
The OFW was caught smuggling heroin in 2010 and was sentenced to death by firing squad months after her imprisonment. She was granted a temporary stay of execution at the last minute in 2015 after former President Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino III personally appealed for her clemency following the surrender of Veloso’s recruiters.
“We haven’t really stopped… but the Indonesians answered us that this is the law [here] that’s why we have to implement it and they have already given us postponement but that doesn’t mean it’s done,” Marcos Jr. told reporters there on Tuesday evening.
The chief executive added that the Philippine government will continue to try to bring Veloso home, saying: “We can be the ones to punish her... Just seeking any way to ask for clemency, to ask for grace when it comes to this.”
Migrant workers’ groups have continuously said Veloso was a victim of human trafficking.
RELATED: SC ends years-long debate: Mary Jane Veloso can tell her story
“Mary Jane had no knowledge that the suitcase given to her by her recruiter while in Malaysia contained drugs,” a letter penned by Migrante International and over 180 other civil rights organizations to Indonesia’s Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati last month read.
“[Her] recruiters continue to face charges of human trafficking and we strongly believe that the guilty conviction for large scale illegal recruitment and fraud is already a testament to Mary Jane’s innocence.”
Mary Jane has been jailed in Indonesia since 2010 after unknowingly carrying heroin sewn into a luggage given to her by her recruiters, who have since been sentenced to life imprisonment. @MigranteI also sent a letter calling for Mary Jane’s freedom @PhilstarNews pic.twitter.com/BMqbeMo2p3
— Kaycee Valmonte (@kayceevalmonte) April 23, 2023
During Marcos Jr.’s state visit to Indonesia last year, the Philippine government once again sought executive clemency for the OFW.
Hopes for Veloso’s release sparked after Indonesian President Joko Widodo granted clemency to a woman on death row for similar drug smuggling charges.
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