Mary Jane Veloso makes plea for freedom in open letter
Mary Jane Veloso, who was formerly on Indonesia's death row, has made a new plea for her freedom in an open letter.
In the letter, penned on Jan. 28, Veloso wrote from prison and thanked her supporters. She is currently detained in the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong.
"I want you to know how difficult it has been for me to see my parents, who are already of old age, traveling all the way [from] Nueva Ecija, for [eight to] 10 hours just to visit me," she said, as translated by Migrante International.
"They put aside their own health conditions and their old age to ease their longing for me. But for some reason, after one year, I am still here in prison even though I have not committed any wrongdoing, even in our country."
Veloso returned to the Philippines on Dec. 18, 2024 morning after nearly 15 years in Indonesian prison, and hoped that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. would grant her executive clemency. At the time, Marcos said that it was still "far-off."
Veloso made a renewed plea in her letter.
"I wish for nothing more than to be with my family who have been separated from me for more than 16 years. I hope to be given the opportunity to take care of my parents while they are still alive, and especially my children, whom I did not have the chance to watch grow up. I want to make them feel that they have a mother who loves them very much."
The former OFW's parents, Celia and Cesar Veloso, have filed a 19-page petition for the Supreme Court to order her immediate release, saying that her continued detention without an arrest warrant or confinement order from a court is illegal. They also argued that Veloso does not have any pending criminal case in the Philippines.
In December 2025, Gabriela Party-list Rep. Sarah Jane Elago also filed House Resolution No. 583 recognizing Veloso as a human trafficking victim and urging Marcos to grant the former OFW clemency.
Veloso's case
On April 25, 2010, Veloso was apprehended at Adisucipto International Airport in the city of Yogyakarta after authorities found her in possession of over 2.6 kilos of heroin.
She said she was unaware of the contents of her luggage, noting that it had been given to her by her recruiters, Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao.
Veloso was sentenced to death in October of that year after she was found guilty of drug trafficking.
In 2011, the late former president Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III intervened and requested clemency from then-Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhyono, who temporarily prohibited executions. Veloso's capital punishment was put on hold until Joko Widodo's administration began in 2014.
At Widodo's state visit in February 2015, Aquino again reportedly appealed for Veloso's case. The late president requested clemency anew in a third letter when former Vice President Jejomar Binay traveled to Indonesia.
On April 24, 2015, Veloso was transferred to the maximum security prison island of Nasa Kumabangan, where she was scheduled to be executed.
The tides turned as Veloso's recruiter Sergio surrendered to authorities on April 28. Meanwhile, Aquino had reportedly "broken protocol" to save Veloso.
Almendras told reporters that the former president talked to Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi to ask Veloso to be turned into a state witness to help Indonesia pin down a drug trafficking syndicate.
The Filipina was granted a last-minute reprieve from execution at 1 a.m. on April 20.
Meanwhile, former president Rodrigo Duterte reportedly gave the "go-ahead" to Widodo to execute Veloso in September 2016.
On Nov. 20, 2024, Marcos announced that the Philippines reached an agreement to bring Veloso home.
