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| Mary Jane on her return home in Dec 2024 after being released from death row in Indonesia |
Filipino former domestic worker Mary Jane Veloso who has been imprisoned since being arrested in Indonesia in 2010 for drug trafficking has received absolute pardon from President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., allowing her to be freed.
President Marcos himself made the announcement in an ambush interview with reporters in Samar earlier today, saying he signed the pardon decree yesterday, September 24.
“I signed her pardon yesterday,” he said in Filipino, in response to a question from a reporter.
There has been no immediate response from the Veloso family and their supporters on Mary Jane’s pardon.
Veloso was sentenced to death after being found guilty after trial in Indonesia on Oct 11, 2010. She was granted temporary reprieve at the behest of then Philippine President Benigno Aquino, Jr. but remained on death row for almost 10 years afterwards.
After a relentless campaign for her release waged by her family, friends and support group Migrante International, the Indonesian government allowed Veloso to be transferred to a prison in the Philippines in November, 2024, in line with prisoner transfer laws between the two countries.
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| DETAILS HERE |
She was released from the Indonesian jail and repatriated to Manila in mid-December 2024, but was immediately moved to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City. She has remained there since.
Throughout her arrest and trial she insisted on her innocence, and claimed that she was tricked into smuggling the 2.6 kilos of heroin found inside a hidden lining in a suitcase she was carrying when she arrived at Yogyakarta Airport on April 25, 2010.
Veloso pointed to a family friend, Maria Cristina Sergio, as the one who got her into the mess after luring her to apply as a domestic worker in Malaysia. Veloso paid Sergio Php20,000 cash, and gave her a motorcycle and cellphone as well to pay for her deployment.
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But on arrival in
Kuala Lumpur Sergio told her that the job was no longer available, and that she
would be deployed in Indonesia instead. Sergio took her shopping and bought her
a new suitcase for her clothes. Veloso was then introduced to an African man
she knew only as “Ike” who gave her a plane ticket and a cell phone number she
was meant to call once she landed in Indonesia.
Sergio and her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay a Php2 million fine after being tried for large-scale illegal recruitment in the Philippines. Three Filipinos who complained of having been recruited by the two for overseas jobs acted as complainants.
Veloso’s absolute
pardon means she can now be freed immediately, and her political and civil
rights fully restored.
