Manila, Philippines – Members of the House minority bloc filed on Monday, Dec. 15, a resolution asking President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to grant clemency to Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina overseas worker who was jailed for 15 years for drug trafficking in Indonesia before she was transferred to Manila’s Correctional Institution for Women.
Lawmakers from party-list groups Gabriela, ACT Teachers and Kabataan filed House Resolution 583 ahead of the one-year anniversary since Veloso was repatriated to the Philippines after Manila and Jakarta reached an agreement over her custody.
Veloso, a mother of two, earlier was on Indonesia’s row after authorities found drugs in her luggage. Veloso pleaded innocence saying the luggage was given to her by her recruiter.
Her case has been a flashpoint in diplomatic relations between the two neighbors for nearly two decades, until last year when Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s administration allowed prisoner transfer for foreign detainees, including Veloso.
In filing the resolution, the lawmakers cited Marcos’ earlier pronouncement that Veloso was “a victim of her circumstances.”
The legislators said Indonesia did not impose any condition in the prisoner transfer and that under the Constitution, the president “can grant clemency after conviction by final judgment.”
The lawmakers also said they are holding Marcos accountable for his pronouncements, citing a Nov. 21, 2024 public interview where Marcos, they said, “expressed his openness to grant Mary Jane clemency.”
“[T]he grant of clemency to Mary Jane has been a long time coming considering that she is a victim of human trafficking, and is not a drug mule,” read the House resolution.
