Mary Jane Veloso seeks clemency
Drug trafficking victim Mary Jane Veloso again appealed to President Marcos to grant her clemency so she could finally be set free after more than 16 years of imprisonment for a crime she did not commit.
Veloso made the request as she lamented the hardships she and her family experienced as she remained imprisoned at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City since her return to the country in 2024, after being spared the death sentence in Indonesia.
Veloso was arrested in Yogyakarta in April 2010 after drugs were found in luggage that was provided by her recruiter and an African man in Indonesia. Her death sentence was commuted in 2015 after an appeal from Philippine officials led by then President Benigno Aquino III, but she remained imprisoned in Indonesia.
In 2020, the Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court found Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao guilty of illegal recruitment and were sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of P2 million.
After more than 10 years of negotiations with Indonesia, Veloso was repatriated in 2024 under terms negotiated over two years by the Department of Foreign Affairs under President Marcos.
“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,” the 41-year-old Veloso wrote in Filipino in an open letter to her supporters dated Jan. 28, a copy of which was sent to reporters on Sunday.
After being separated from her loved ones for more than 16 years, she said she only wished to be finally reunited with her family.
“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,” she said.
Workers’ group Migrante International called on the Filipino people and global community to stand with Veloso in her continuing journey towards freedom.
No PH conviction
In December, Gabriela Rep. Sarah Jane Elago filed a resolution urging President Marcos to grant clemency to Veloso, noting that her continued detention prolonged the “grave injustice” she has endured.
According to Veloso’s lawyers from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), Philippine authorities “lack jurisdiction and domestic legal authority to continue the enforcement of a foreign penal judgment” in the absence of a treaty because Veloso is neither charged nor convicted of a crime under Philippine laws.
Since Veloso has not been convicted of any crime in the Philippines, Veloso’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to issue a writ of habeas corpus questioning the legality of her detention in the Philippines.
The NUPL also argued that Veloso’s continued detention was also a violation of the Palermo Protocol, because the Philippine government treats Veloso as a human trafficking victim.
The country adopted the protocol in 2002 to ensure the protection of human trafficking victims, especially women and children.
The same protection is accorded to trafficked individuals under Republic Act No. 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, as amended by RA 10364 in 2012, and RA 11862 in 2022.
