Malacañang confirms 'imminent return' of Mary Jane Veloso to PH 

The return of convicted overseas Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso to the Philippines has been finalized, Malacañang said on Monday. 

“With much appreciation and gratefulness to the Republic of Indonesia, we confirm the imminent return of our kababayan, Mary Jane Veloso,” said Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin in a statement. 

The Palace said Veloso’s homecoming to her homeland is “the fruit of more than a decade of persistent discussions, consultations and diplomacy.”  

“Duty-bound as we are to honor the conditions for her transfer to the Philippine jurisdiction, we are truly elated to welcome Mary Jane back to her homeland and family, from whom she has been distracted for too long,” Bersamin added. 

Veloso's family, her lawyer, and some government officials were supposed to travel to Indonesia on Sunday, December 15, to visit her ahead of her transfer to the Philippines.

But the trip was canceled because there would no longer be any jail visit since Veloso was being transferred to Jakarta from Yogyakarta.

Veloso, 39, is on death row for drug trafficking after she was caught with 2.6 kilos of heroin in Yogyakarta in 2010. 

In January, Veloso’s family sent letters to then-Indonesian President Joko Widodo and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to appeal her clemency.

She reunited with her family after five years last June 2023 after they visited her in Yogyakarta. 

In 2015, Widodo said their government gave Veloso only a ”temporary reprieve” from her scheduled execution in relation to alleged human trafficking.

Meanwhile, human trafficking and large-scale illegal recruitment cases were filed against Veloso's traffickers Julius Lacanilao and Cristina Sergio at the Regional Trial Court of Nueva Ecjia.

In 2020, a guilty verdict on the illegal recruitment case was handed down on the recruiters but the trafficking case is still pending.—LDF, GMA Integrated News