By ALYSSA MAE CLARIN
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — After almost 14 years of imprisonment, Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino on death row in Indonesia, has a chance of coming back home to the Philippines.
According to Indonesian media, Mary Jane Veloso’s case was one of the matters discussed by the two countries in a recent meeting between Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Gina Jamoralin and Coordinating Minister Yusril Mahendra of the Indonesian Ministry for Law, Human Rights and Immigration.
The Indonesian government is also considering two mechanisms to implement the transfer, either through direct negotiations, or by crafting an official Indonesian policy on the transfer of prisoners.
Additionally, they are also hinting at the possibility of allowing the Philippine government to make future decisions on Veloso’s potential clemency once she is transferred.
Mahendra said that the matter has been discussed internally and was also brought to the attention of Indonesia’s newly elected President Prabowo Subianto.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) through its Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migration Eduardo Jose De Vega also confirmed that both countries are talking to come up with a “mutually agreed solution” that would be to the utmost benefit of Veloso and her family.
In a press statement, Filipino migrants rights organization Migrante International said that the possibility of transferring Mary Jane to serve her sentence here in the Philippines was being considered as an option by the Indonesian government.
Veloso was arrested in Indonesia back in 2010 after authorities found 2.6 kilos of heroin inside her luggage which she unwillingly brought because of her illegal recruiters.
In their released press statement, Migrante sees this discussion as a positive development, and welcomes the opportunity to address the situation of Veloso, who has been in death row prison in Indonesia for the last 14 years.
However, the group is still hopeful that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will continue to pursue efforts to grant Veloso clemency even before her transfer back to the Philippines, and suggested that Marcos Jr. could explore three options of granting clemency: negotiation, bilateral agreement, and through recent legal changes related to the death penalty in Indonesia.
“In the event that Mary Jane were to be transferred to the Philippines, Marcos Jr. will now have the power to grant Mary Jane clemency based on her being a victim of human trafficking, on humanitarian grounds, and the absence of death penalty in the Philippines,” they added.
Migrante also questioned the Senate plenary deliberations on the proposed 2025 national budget of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) last Wednesday (November 13) that did not even mention Veloso’s case during a discussion on Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in death row, when it has been considered as the most high profile case facing OFWs in detention overseas to date.
“Marcos Jr. must therefore continue to exert all efforts to obtain Mary Jane’s deposition as soon as possible to establish legally through the regional trial court in Nueva Ecija that Mary Jane is a victim of human trafficking. Mary Jane and her family have been fighting to hold her traffickers accountable in court for the last nine years and they deserve full justice,” added Migrante.
In the most recent hearing of the case, the Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court had asked for proof that there is an existing coordination between the Indonesian Government and the Philippine Government after news that the scheduled October bilateral talks did not push through. (RTS, JJE)
