Philippines pardons drug mule Mary Jane Veloso repatriated by Indonesia
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Former death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso’s case sparked an uproar in the Philippines that forced Manila and Jakarta to strike a deal.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has pardoned Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who spent nearly 15 years on Indonesia’s death row for drug trafficking before being sent home.
Veloso, 40, is expected to be freed after the pardon since there are no other active cases against her, though Marcos did not specify when that will happen.
The mother-of-two was arrested and sentenced to death by an Indonesian court in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6kg of heroin.
Nine years after she narrowly missed execution, Jakarta handed her over to Manila in 2024 under a “practical arrangement” for her repatriation, allowing her to serve the rest of her sentence in a Philippine prison.
“I’ll give you a scoop: I signed her pardon yesterday,” Marcos told reporters during a visit to the northern town of Batac on Sept 25.
His spokeswoman earlier said Marcos was seriously considering an absolute pardon for Veloso.
Veloso’s lawyer relayed the news to her family, her mother Celia Veloso said from their northern Philippine hometown.
“They were so happy,” she said of Mary Jane’s two sons. “‘We will finally be able to be with mama’. That’s what they told me.”
The case of the Filipina, who travelled to Indonesia to seek work as a maid, sparked uproar in the Philippines, where millions of its people seek better-paying work abroad.
Both she and her supporters claim she was duped by an international drug syndicate.
In 2015, Indonesia spared her from execution after Philippine authorities arrested her suspected recruiter. AFP