Pinay drug convict in Indonesia to come home; gov’t eyes clemency

By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter

FILIPINO DOMESTIC worker Mary Jane F. Veloso will finally return to the Philippines after a decade of incarceration in Indonesia, authorities said, a development widely welcomed in a country known for exporting its workforce.

But Ms.Veloso will remain in detention upon arriving in the Philippines until the two Southeast Asian neighbors reach a mutual agreement for clemency, Foreign Undersecretary for Migration Eduardo de Vega said at a Palace briefing on Wednesday.

Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. announced earlier in the day that Manila and Jakarta had reached an agreement to bring Ms. Veloso back to the Philippines, citing over a decade of diplomatic talks between the two nations.

The Filipino overseas worker was sentenced to death in October 2010 and was granted a stay of execution in April 2015. Ms. Veloso, who was caught smuggling 2.6 kilograms of heroin hidden in the lining of a suitcase, was a victim of human trafficking, according to her lawyers.

“Arrested in 2010 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to death, Mary Jane’s case has been a long and difficult journey,” Mr. Marcos said in a statement, maintaining that she’s a victim.

“After over a decade of diplomacy and consultations with the Indonesian government, we managed to delay her execution long enough to reach an agreement to finally bring her back to the Philippines.”

Mr. De Vega, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official, said the Indonesian government did not ask anything in return.

But Ms. Veloso “will not be immediately released” when she arrives in the Philippines.

“It means we will commit to detain her until such time that we, in a mutual agreement [with Indonesia, decide] that she could be given clemency,” he said. “But at least she would be here.”

Asked whether Ms. Veloso, the only Filipino on death row in Indonesia, is completely spared from the penalty, he said: “Nothing is 100%, but the fact that Indonesia is talking to us about transferring, is the most probable indication that they have no intent to execute her.”

“And obviously, once she’s here, she is completely safe.”

While the Philippines will have the physical custody over Ms. Veloso, the legal custody will remain with Indonesia, Philippine Department of Justice (DoJ) spokesman Jose Dominic F. Clavano IV said at the same briefing.

“The Indonesian government is aware that we do not have the death penalty here, which they respect as well, which is a consideration obviously when they also issued the policy of transferring certain detained individuals back to their own countries,” he said.

“Indonesia is not surrendering its jurisdiction over the case,” Mr. De Vega said. But technically, the Indonesian government already conceded “that there will be no execution and that is still a major concession.”

Mr. Clavano said the Philippine Justice department was still working on the detention facility for Ms. Veloso, and among its options is the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.

Philippine senators have welcomed the development, with Senate Migrant Workers Chairperson Rafael T. Tulfo citing Mr. Marcos’ “successful diplomatic efforts that paved the way” for the impending return of Ms. Veloso.

Senate President Francis G. Escudero in a statement expressed his gratitude to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and to the entire Indonesian government for its compassion.

“We call on the authorities concerned to ensure the safety of Mary Jane upon her return to the Philippines and to reach out to her family and allay whatever fears or concerns they may have about her transfer,” he said.

Much of the credit should go to the DFA, which handled her case for so long, said Hansley A. Juliano, who teaches political science at the Ateneo de Manila University.

‘POPULIST PRESIDENTS’
“At the same time, we should also take into account the misfortune of Ms. Veloso’s dealing with two populist presidents trying to project a ‘tough on crime’ image on both sides of the Philippines and Indonesia,” he added, citing former Philippine president Rodrigo R. Duterte and former Indonesian President Jokowi Widodo.

Mr. Duterte’s foreign affairs spokesman in 2016 said he had told Mr. Widodo that “he respects their judicial processes and will accept whatever the final decision they will arrive at regarding her case.”

Late former Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto R. Yasay made the statement after reports that Mr. Duterte had given the Indonesian government the go-signal to execute Ms. Veloso.

The drug trafficking case of Ms. Veloso has long been decided, but the Indonesian government in 2015 agreed to delay her execution amid the still-ongoing case against her recruiters at a trial court in the province of Nueva Ecija north of the capital Manila.

And it helped so much that the late President Benigno S.C. Aquino III asked Indonesia at the eleventh hour to turn Ms. Veloso into a state witness.

His foreign secretary, the late Albert F. del Rosario, had said Indonesia gave Ms. Veloso a reprieve to allow her to testify against her recruiters, in a move that the Aquino government said would target a drug trafficking syndicate that has been linked to the victim’s recruiters.

Mr. Clavano said Ms. Veloso’s return will speed up the case since “it’s very convenient for us to have a witness at disposal of the prosecution.”

“The reason why this case has taken so long is precisely because the chance or the opportunities to interview or take her testimony has been very scarce. It would entail a lot of costs, a whole team to be in Indonesia, including the judge herself,” he explained.

“So, whenever we take her testimony via deposition, the Indonesian government does require a whole team including the judge and the prosecutors to be there as well,” he added. “So, given the workload of all these government officials and the schedules of the families, it’s quite difficult to come up with a common schedule.”

“Having her here in the Philippines will be quite convenient and would definitely speed up the process of the case.”

‘TRAVERSED ADMINISTRATIONS’
The Liberal Party, Mr. Aquino’s vehicle to the 2010 presidential elections, recognized Mr. Marcos’ efforts and noted that saving Ms. Veloso “traversed administrations.”

“During the time of PNoy (Mr. Aquino), the DoJ and DFA worked for a last-minute reprieve on Mary Jane’s scheduled execution culminating in a midnight phone call of PNoy to then President Widodo of Indonesia,” it said in a statement.

“It was a race to work out an agreement with President Widodo, so close that some Philippine dailies released morning editions that reported a supposed execution that, fortunately, did not push through,” it added.

As for the time of Mr. Duterte, all the credit for saving Ms. Veloso from her execution goes to Indonesia, as the tough-talking Filipino politicians “said his government could not care less if a drug offender like Mary Jane was finally executed,” the Liberal Party said.

“This was only in line with his policy of summarily executing drug suspects in his own country,” it added. “Finally, the Philippine government has succeeded in completing its mission to permanently stay her execution.”

The Philippine economy has been reliant on remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), due in large part to a labor code that Mr. Marcos’ late father, the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr., crafted in the 1970s.

The labor policy promoted overseas contract work.

Estimates showed that the number of OFWs hit 10.2 million in 2023, including 2.3 million migrant workers. Over 50% of registered OFWs in the same year were female.

Remittances, which serve a key source of income and foreign exchange for the Philippines, accounted for 8.5% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2023.

“We must see to it that no Filipino migrant worker falls victim to yet another death sentence,” Senator Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares said in a statement.