MANILA, Philippines – Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina worker who was sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking she claims she had been duped into, has spent another year behind bars.

Friday, April 25, marked 25 years since Veloso was arrested in Yogyakarta, Indonesia after airport security found 2.6 kilograms of heroin in a suitcase given to her by her recruiter. But this is the first time she is marking an anniversary in the Philippines since she was transferred back to the country in December 2024.

Despite President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. having the prerogative to pardon her, he has not done so, more than four months later.

“Ang hiling ko lang po sa Presidente natin, bigyan na po ng clemency ang anak ko, dahil wala po siyang kasalanan dito. Sana maawa naman po siya,” Veloso’s father, Cesar Veloso told Rappler on Friday.

(My only request to the President is to give my daughter clemency because she has done no crime. I hope he pities her.)

Cesar said his family has had mixed feelings since her return to her home country — happy that she has been easier to visit, but sad that she is still detained.

“Talagang nahihirapan ‘yung anak ko. Pati kami, nahihirapan sa paghagilap ng pamasahe para madalaw siya,” he said. (My daughter is having a hard time. So are we, since it’s difficult to get money to visit her.

The family lives in General Mamerto Natividad in Nueva Ecija, while Mary Jane is detained at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong. Her eldest son Macmac has been working in construction, partly because they need some of the money to visit her.

The last time the family visited was on April 20, Easter Sunday. Cesar said that while Mary Jane was in high spirits, she was still asking the family to do everything they could for her to come home. But there is not much they can do, Cesar told her, since all they can do is keep asking authorities to grant their wish for her freedom.

On Mary Jane’s 40th birthday on January 10, after visiting her at CIW, Cesar personally dropped off a letter at Malacañang appealing for his daughter’s clemency anew.

But Cesar does not know what happened to that letter. “Hindi na namin alam kung nasagot [ng Pangulo] dahil wala naman umaabot sa amin (We don’t know whether the President has answered it because we haven’t heard back).”

Testimony delayed

Mary Jane was spared from execution in Indonesia in 2015 after the Philippine government convinced their counterparts to turn her into a state witness. Then-president Benigno Aquino III said her participation in a case against her recruiters could help Indonesia pin down an international drug syndicate.

In November 2024, Indonesia’s new president Prabowo Subianto allowed her transfer back to the Philippines to live out the rest of her sentence. When she stepped on Philippine soil, her life was spared since there is no death penalty in the country.

Until now, Mary Jane has not been able to testify in her case against her recruiters Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao in a trial court in Nueva Ecija. Several schedules in March and April were postponed.

Wednesday, April 23, was the latest schedule for her testimony, but it still did not push through due to the absence of a public prosecutor. Still, the court proceeded with the hearing held via video conferencing, where Mary Jane saw her recruiters through a screen from CIW, accompanied by her private lawyers.

“When Mary Jane saw their faces, actually she was shaking. I had to support her and calm her down. I just moved the camera a bit so that her face wouldn’t be seen,” Josa Deinla, one of Mary Jane’s lawyers from the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), told Rappler after the hearing on Wednesday.

According to Deinla, the testimony was delayed due to schedule conflicts like one of the public defenders needing to attend a conference abroad, the judge going on medical leave, and the public prosecutor needing to attend another hearing.

Mary Jane is the final witness for the prosecution in this particular case. Sergio and Lacanilao have already been found guilty of illegal recruitment in a separate case.

Mary Jane is very much aware of the anniversary of her arrest, since it was she who reminded Deinla about it. Despite seeing the distress in her client when she saw her recruiters, Deinla said that Mary Jane is “very excited” and “ready” to testify.

“She has been waiting so long to finally speak about what really happened. So she was a little bit disappointed that there have been hiccups along the way,” said Deinla.

The NUPL is still in the dark, meanwhile, on why the Marcos administration is taking so long to grant her clemency. When she was in Indonesia, Marcos said that the government was still asking Indonesia to grant it to her.

“If the government wants to be more convinced or persuaded that she deserves this clemency, then by all means, they can observe this trial, the hearing, and hear personally from Mary Jane herself what really happened to her, and listen to her recount that she is only a victim,” said Deinla. – Rappler.com