“My return to life from death row”

The Filipino emigrant sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking has arrived in Manila after 14 years in prison. Today he was finally able to see his children. “Living behind bars has changed my life, transforming me into a person who has grown closer to God.” There have been many requests from the Church and civil society for President Marcos to grant him clemency, which the Jakarta government will not oppose.

Jakarta () – “A miracle that came when I had lost all hope.” With these words, she commented on the extradition that took her from the arm of death Mary Jane Veloso, the 39-year-old Filipino emigrant arrested in 2010 in Indonesia for drug trafficking and sentenced to death. After 14 years in detention, she returned to her country of origin last night under an agreement between the governments of Manila and Jakarta announced in recent weeks. Transferred to the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, near Manila, she was able to reunite today with her parents, César and Celia, and her children, Mark Daniel and Mark Darren.

Born in Cabanatuan, a city in the province of Nueva Ecija, Veloso was the youngest of five siblings in a family that lived in extreme poverty. His father worked as a laborer on a sugar cane plantation and his mother collected discarded bottles and plastics to sell to dealers. At age 16, Mary Jane dropped out of school to marry her husband. The couple later separated and found themselves alone with two young children. To support them in 2009, she entrusted them to her grandparents and emigrated to Dubai to work as a waitress. But an attempted rape by her employer forced her to return home.

A year later, Veloso was hired to work as a waitress in Malaysia, but her employer transferred her to Indonesia. But upon her arrival in Jakarta she was caught with 2.6 kilos of heroin and accused of drug trafficking, a crime for which Indonesia punishes with the death penalty. Although Mary Jane always claimed that she had been deceived by her recruiters and that she had transported the illegal substances without her knowledge, she was convicted in 2015. And since then her ordeal and attempts by the Philippine government to intervene began.

The years in the arms of death, however, were also the time of a journey of faith, which began with a Jesuit priest from Yogyakarta, Father Bernard ‘Teddy’ Kieser, who often visited Veloso in the detention center. where she was imprisoned. I wasn’t a good Catholic before,” says Mary Jane, “but living behind bars has changed my life, transforming me into a person who has grown closer to God. “I am ready to build a new life, like a butterfly that comes out of its cocoon.” “For almost 15 years I was separated from my children and my parents, I was not able to see them grow up,” she added, “now I want to have the opportunity to take care of them and be close to my parents.”

Commenting on the news, Monsignor Ruperto Cruz Santos, bishop of Antipolo and president of the Philippine Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Emigrants and Itinerants, described Mary Jane’s return home as “a triumph of faith, justice and constant support.” of our community.” Monsignor Santos added that Veloso now needs “mercy and justice.” Many voices from the Church, civil society and other human rights organizations call on Philippine President Marcos to pardon this woman now.

For his part, Indonesian Minister of Justice, Human Rights and Immigration, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, praised the transfer agreement, calling it a “milestone” between Indonesia and the Philippines and part of the president’s new administration’s “good neighborly” policy. Prabowo Subianto. Once repatriated, Mahendra added, whether or not the Philippines wants to pardon Veloso “is entirely up to them and we must also respect that.”

The last death sentences in Indonesia were carried out in July 2016, when an Indonesian and three foreigners were shot. According to government figures, there are about 530 people sentenced to death in the country, most of them for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners.

(Santosh Digal has collaborated)