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SCMP’s Asia desk

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said on Friday that he has pardoned Mary Jane Veloso, a former death row inmate detained since her 2010 conviction for drug trafficking in Indonesia.
“I’ll give you a scoop: I signed her pardon yesterday,” Marcos told reporters during a visit to the northern town of Batac on Friday.
Veloso is expected to be freed after the pardon since there are no other active cases against her, though Marcos did not specify when that will happen.
Claire Castro, the president’s spokeswoman, earlier said that Marcos was seriously considering an absolute pardon for Veloso.
Veloso’s lawyer relayed the news to her family, her mother Celia Veloso said by phone from their northern Philippine hometown.
“They were so happy,” she said of Veloso’s two sons.
“‘We will finally be able to be with mama,’ that’s what they told me.”

Indonesia would not need to be informed, Castro added, as clemency was the prerogative of the Philippine government under the terms of Veloso’s repatriation.
The overseas Filipino worker, then 25, was arrested at Yogyakarta’s Adisutjipto International Airport in 2010 after officials found 2.6kg (5.7lbs) of heroin hidden in her luggage. She was convicted and sentenced to death later that year.
Veloso, a single mother of two, has maintained her innocence, saying she was deceived by recruiters who promised her a job abroad as a domestic helper. Advocates argue she was a victim of human trafficking.
Scheduled for execution by firing squad in 2015, Veloso won a dramatic last-minute reprieve after then president Benigno Aquino III appealed to his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo.


She remained at Yogyakarta Women’s Prison while the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs negotiated her transfer with the Indonesian government. Reports that she was suffering from a possibly malignant ovarian cyst added urgency to the process.
On December 18, 2024, Veloso flew back to Manila and was transferred to the custody of the Philippines’ Bureau of Corrections.
The arrangement allowed her sentence to be governed by Philippine laws upon her return, including the executive authority to grant clemency or a presidential pardon.
Activists have campaigned for the 41-year-old’s release since her return to the country. In February, Castro urged Veloso to write to the president personally to ask for clemency.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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Mary Jane Veloso is expected to be freed after the clemency since there are no other active cases against her


Mary Jane Veloso is expected to be freed after the clemency since there are no other active cases against her.


Indonesia

Claire Castro

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr

Benigno Aquino

Philippines pardons death row inmate repatriated from Indonesia

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Mary Jane Veloso is expected to be freed after the clemency since there are no other active cases against her

Mary Jane Veloso is expected to be freed after the clemency since there are no other active cases against her