MANILA, Philippines – For most Filipinos who were on social media or watched the news closely in 2015, it was close to impossible not to be moved by Mary Jane Veloso.
Then just 30, Veloso was set to be executed by firing squad in Indonesia five years after she was arrested, tried, and sentenced for trying to bring heroin into Indonesia.
On Wednesday, November 20, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that Veloso would soon return home. Indonesia had apparently made the suggestion a few weeks ago.
The two countries have yet to flesh out the details of her return home, although it’s expected that even as she finds herself in Philippine soil, she will need to serve out her time in jail based on Indonesian law.
“Kaya’t malaki dapat ang pasasalamat natin sa Indonesia. Malaki dapat ang pasasalamat natin sa ‘yung last president at ‘yung present president, President Widodo, President Prabowo ngayon, dahil kung hindi sa kanilang pagsang-ayon ay hindi natin nagawa ito…. But as I said, we have been working on this for — all the previous presidents, hindi lang ako. Ten years na ito,” Marcos said in a chance interview on Thurday, November 21.
(We should be thankful to Indonesia. We are thankful to both [former president] Widodo and President [Prabowo] Subianto now because if they did not agree it this, it would not have happened. But as I said, we have been working on this for — all the previous presidents, not just me. This was 10 years in the making.)
Saving Mary Jane
Veloso, a mother of two had worked in Dubai as a house helper, returned to the Philippines, and tried her luck in Malaysia for a job that apparently no longer existed. She said she was duped and did not know that over 2.6 kilograms of heroin had been hidden in the lining of luggage that had been handed to her by a childhood friend.
A groundswell of support followed — in the Philippines and beyond — after then-Indonesian president Joko Widodo rejected a batch of clemency appeals that included Veloso’s.
While a petition started filling up with signatures, the government led by then-President Benigno Aquino Jr. was also hard at work.
“With only a few hours left to save overseas Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso from death row, the late President Noynoy Aquino took the extra mile, breaking diplomatic protocol to speak directly with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi,” according to the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation (NCAF).
A previously unreleased photo, provided to Rappler by the NCAF, shows the late Aquino speaking to Marsudi on a burner phone as the foreign secretary at the time, the late Albert del Rosario, looked on. The photo was taken on April 28, 2015 in Langkawi, Malaysia during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.
It’s considered unusual — and a break of diplomatic protocol — for a president to phone the minister or another country himself. “PNoy explained to Marsudi why Indonesia should spare Mary Jane’s life, emphasizing that her testimony could help Indonesian authorities track down the drug syndicate that had duped her into smuggling heroin into the country,” said the NCAF.
In a 2015 Rappler article, then-Cabinet secretary Rene Almendras noted that normal protocol is for the foreign ministers of two countries to arrange the conversation between their respective presidents or heads of state.
Philippine officials then did not know if Widodo was en route to Indonesia, and therefore could not be reached.
Almendras noted then: “It was the President himself who talked to the Indonesian foreign minister. The Indonesian foreign minister was quite surprised, because normally that’s not done. But when the President did that, she promised, ‘Mr President, I will immediately relay your message to both the President and to whoever else needs to know in Jakarta.’”
“The efforts of PNoy and his team paid off: They secured a last-minute reprieve for Mary Jane,” noted the NCAF.
Indonesia’s attorney-general at the time would also confirm that Veloso’s execution was delayed “because there was a last-minute plea from the Philippine president.”
A crucial development, after all, had taken place in Manila — Veloso’s alleged recruiter, Maria Kristina Sergio, surrendered to police as she faced charges of illegal recruitment, estafa, and human trafficking in the Philippines.
Widodo himself would later say: “The decision to delay the execution was taken by the President after receiving reports about an ongoing legal process in the Philippines. Because the legal process is still ongoing in the Philippines, we must ensure Mary Jane Veloso deserves justice.”
Duterte’s non-intervention
If Aquino broke protocol to save Veloso, his immediate successor seemingly had the opposite desire.
In 2016, Widodo himself recalled that then-president Rodrigo Duterte, who promised and failed to eliminate the “drug menace” in the Philippines, said he would not intervene if Indonesia went ahead with Veloso’s execution.
A Duterte spokesperson would later confirm as much, albeit with a kinder spin. “[Duterte] said, regarding Mary Jane Veloso, he said, ‘Follow your own laws, I will not interfere,’” said then spokesperson Ernesto Abella.
It was under an Aquino that Veloso’s death was postponed. By all indications, it would be under a Marcos that Veloso would finally find her way back home. – Rappler.com
The photo of Aquino and Del Rosario is set to be part of the upcoming book “PNoy: Filipino,” to be published by the NCAF and is set for release early 2025.
