The Filipino migrant sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking has arrived in Manila after 14 years spent in prison. Today he was finally able to see his children. “Living behind bars changed my life and transformed me into a person who has grown closer to God.” There are many requests from the Church and civil society for President Marcos to grant her a pardon, which the Jakarta government will not oppose.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – “A miracle that arrived when I had lost all hope.” With these words, Mary Jane Veloso, the 39-year-old Filipino migrant arrested in 2010 in Indonesia for drug dealing and sentenced to capital punishment, commented on the extradition that took her away from death row. After 14 years of detention, the woman returned to her country of origin last night under an agreement between the Manila and Jakarta governments announced in recent weeks. Transferred to the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, near Manila, today she was able to meet her parents, Cesar and Celia, and her children, Mark Daniel and Mark Darren.
Born in Cabanatuan, a city in the province of Nueva Ecija, Veloso was the youngest of five siblings from a family that lived in extreme poverty. His father worked as a seasonal agricultural worker on a sugar cane plantation and his mother collected waste bottles and plastic to sell to second-hand dealers. At 16, Mary Jane dropped out of school to marry her husband at just 16 years old. The couple then separated, finding themselves single mothers of two young children. To support them, in 2009 she entrusted them to her grandparents and emigrated to Dubai to work as a waitress. But an attempted rape by her employer forced her to return home.
A year later, Veloso was then recruited to work as a maid in Malaysia, only to be transferred to Indonesia by her employer. But just upon arriving in Jakarta she was stopped with 2.6 kilograms of heroin and accused of drug dealing, a crime for which Indonesia carries the death penalty. Although Mary Jane has always maintained that she was deceived by her recruiters and that they transported the illegal substances without her knowledge, she was still convicted in 2015. And since then began his ordeal and attempts at intervention by the Philippine government.
However, the years on death row were also the time of a journey of faith, which began with a Jesuit priest from Yogyakarta, Fr. Bernard “Teddy” Kieser, who often visited Veloso in the detention center where she was held. “Before I wasn’t a good Catholic – said Mary Jane – but living behind bars has changed my life, transforming me into a person who has come closer to God. I’m ready to build a new life, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon” . “For almost 15 years I was separated from my children and my parents, I couldn’t see them grow up – she added -. Now I want to have the opportunity to take care of them and be close to my parents.”
Commenting on the news, Mgr. Ruperto Cruz Santos, bishop of Antipolo and president of the Philippine Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, defined Mary Jane’s homecoming as “a triumph of faith, justice and the constant support of our community”. Bishop Santos added that Veloso now needs “mercy and justice”. Numerous voices from the Church, civil society and other human rights organizations are calling on Philippine President Marcos to now grant pardon to this woman.
For his part, Indonesian Minister for Justice, Human Rights and Immigration Yusril Ihza Mahendra praised the transfer agreement, calling it a “milestone” between Indonesia and the Philippines and as part of the policy of “good neighborhood” of the new administration of President Prabowo Subianto. Once repatriated, Mahendra added, whether the Philippines wants to pardon Veloso “is entirely within their competence and we must respect it too.”
The last capital punishments in Indonesia were carried out in July 2016, when an Indonesian and three foreigners were shot. According to government data, there are around 530 people on death row in the country, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners.
(Santosh Digal contributed)
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