[Rappler Investigates] Joy over Mary Jane

This will be the last newsletter from Rappler that you will be receiving this year. By Friday, December 20, our editorial team will be splitting into Christmas and New Year shifters, with the latter taking a well-deserved seven-day break. The Christmas shifters will get their turn by December 27 and newsroom life will have a sense of normalcy by January 3, when everyone goes back on board. As you and I know, news never stops, it just takes longer and slower strides often during the holidays, affording those who follow it a bit of a slack.

This week’s highlight of course is the return to the country of overseas worker Mary Jane Veloso early Wednesday morning, December 18. She was brought straight to the Correctional Institution for Women where members of her family eagerly waited to hug her tight after her absence of 14 years — caused by her being sentenced to death in 2010 for (unknowingly) smuggling drugs into Indonesia. She was effectively used as an unwitting drug mule, duped by a neighbor into carrying a stash of heroin kept in a suitcase she was asked to carry.

Owing to a required five-day quarantine period for newly-arrived persons deprived of liberty (or PDLs), Mary Jane will be able to see her family again on Christmas Eve. From then on, it will be a waiting and guessing game. If and when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will be granting her a presidential pardon is his sole decision to make. Who knows, if it will come on the eve of, or on Christmas Day itself. Fortunately, there is no death penalty in the Philippines where the commutation of the death penalty in Indonesia to a life sentence here will result in saving an innocent human being.

If you want to catch up on the other essential stories related to Mary Jane, you can read any of the following:

• Mary Jane Veloso reunites with family
• Mary Jane Veloso asks for clemency upon return to Manila
• What you should know about the case of Mary Jane Veloso
• The story of Mary Jane Veloso, in her own words

WATCH! For a change, watch the year’s highlights in this video put together by our Production team: 2024 Year-ender: The end of unity.

And speaking of endings, catch our very last episode of Newsbreak Chats that I hosted and which brought together some of the senior editors of Rappler: editor at large Marites Vitug, executive editor Glenda Gloria, and managing editor Miriam Go. Pardon the irreverence, but you’ll also enjoy the spontaneity in some parts in Newsbreak Chats: What will 2024’s PH political chaos mean for 2025?

Don’t miss reporter Bonz Magsambol’s video explainer, too, on the impeachment process and who could replace Vice President Sara Duterte, in the event she is convicted. There’s talk there will be more developments in this area even as the timetable appears to be extremely tight, what with the intervening holiday break and the May elections sandwiching this highly-political process.

BAR EXAMS. If you’re looking for some inspiration, there is some to be found in these two stories by Jairo Bolledo on two successful Bar examinees. One of them is Gerald Roxas, a survivor of Super Typhoon Yolanda that sliced through Tacloban City in the province of Leyte in 2013 and ruined most anything in its path. Gerald picked himself up after his family led by overseas Filipino worker parents lost everything. With great grit and determination, he toiled to become not only an accountant, but also a lawyer.

How did he manage this feat? With the help of UP alumnae who were also journalists. I myself was pleasantly surprised while editing Jairo’s story and saw familiar faces in a photo embedded in the report. I immediately recognized former Philippine Daily Inquirer colleagues Margie Quimpo Espino, who passed away this year, and Susan de Guzman. (Yes, I started my journalism career with the Inquirer newspaper many decades ago.) They didn’t know Gerald from Adam but chose to help him realize his dream, supporting him financially all the way. The only common thread they — along with two other female journos — had was the University of the Philippines, from where he obtained his accountancy degree. The journalists who helped Gerald were members of the UP Alumni Association.

But law held an attraction, that’s why he enrolled at the Angeles University Foundation even after passing the accountancy licensure exam. Gerald obtained his law degree this year and passed the Bar also this year, even landing third among the 3,962 who made it. A truly remarkable story that seems to happen only on television, if not the movies. But it is for real.

Read about the second Bar success story here — Lawyer for animals: PAWS executive director Anna Cabrera is 2024 Bar passer.

This Christmas season, we would greatly appreciate your help that can go a long way in allowing us to continue writing about and monitoring stories that matter and inspire. Your donation will go a long way in empowering our journalism. – Rappler.com

Rappler Investigates is a bimonthly newsletter of our top picks delivered straight to your inbox every other Thursday.

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