MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Wednesday that a deal has been reached for Indonesia to send back a Filipino death-row drug convict, who was nearly executed by firing squad but got a reprieve due to years of pleadings from Manila.
Marcos thanked Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and his government for granting a longstanding Philippine request for Mary Jane Veloso to be brought back home to serve her sentence in her country.
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“Mary Jane Veloso is coming home,” Marcos said in a statement. “Arrested in 2010 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to death, Mary Jane’s case has been a long and difficult journey.”
It was not immediately clear when Veloso would be transported to the Philippines, but Marcos said he looked forward to welcoming her home.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, Evi Loliancy, the chief of Yogyakarta's female prison, told The Associated Press that there was still no request or order for Veloso's release.
“She will still be under our supervision at the Yogyakarta Correctional Institution until there is a specific order regarding her transfer from the High Prosecutors’ Office," she said.
The decision, Marcos said, “is a reflection of the depth our nation’s partnership with Indonesia — united in a shared commitment to justice and compassion."
Details of the agreement were not immediately disclosed but if Veloso's transfer proceeds, it would remove the possibility of her facing an execution because the Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, has long abolished the death penalty.
In 2015, Indonesian authorities moved Veloso to an island prison where she and eight other drug convicts were scheduled to be executed by firing squad despite objections from the convicts' home countries, including Australia, Brazil, France, Ghana and Nigeria.
Indonesia executed the eight other drug convicts.
Veloso’s case has caused a public outcry in the Philippines, where her family and supporters contend she is innocent and was unaware that somebody had concealed the pack of heroin in her suitcase that was found when she entered Indonesia.
A poor housewife, she traveled to Indonesia in 2010 where her godsister reportedly told her a job as a domestic worker awaited her. Her godsister also allegedly provided the suitcase where the prohibited drugs were found.
Marcos said Veloso’s story resonated with many in the Philippines, as “a mother trapped by the grip of poverty, who made one desperate choice that altered the course of her life."
“While she was held accountable under Indonesian law, she remains a victim of her circumstances," Marcos said.
The Philippines has been a global source of manual labor, including many impoverished women who abandon their families for higher-paying jobs and better opportunities abroad. Alarming abuse, especially of Filipina house helpers, has prompted Philippine authorities to impose restrictions and safeguards but the exploitations have continued.
At least 59 Filipinos around the world face the death penalty mostly for drug and murder convictions, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said.
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Associated Press journalist Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report.