By Benjamin Cuaresma
MANILA, Philippines — Detained overseas worker Mary Jane Veloso has personally appealed to the Supreme Court for her freedom, sending a handwritten letter to Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo as her family and supporters continue efforts to secure her release.
On Friday, Veloso’s parents, Celia and Cesar Veloso, together with members of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), submitted the two-page letter to the High Court along with a motion asking the tribunal to act on a habeas corpus petition previously filed on her behalf.
Veloso, now 41, spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia after she was arrested in 2010 for carrying illegal drugs allegedly hidden inside luggage handed to her by recruiters Julius Lacanilao and Maria Kristina Sergio. She has long maintained that she was an unsuspecting victim of human trafficking.
Her execution had been scheduled in April 2015 but was halted at the last minute after Philippine authorities informed Indonesian officials that her recruiters had surrendered to law enforcement authorities in the Philippines.
In 2020, a court in Nueva Ecija convicted Lacanilao and Sergio of large-scale illegal recruitment.
Years later, during an ASEAN-related visit to Indonesia, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. requested Indonesian President Joko Widodo to revisit Veloso’s case, eventually paving the way for her repatriation to the Philippines in December 2024.
Despite her return home, Veloso has remained detained at the Correctional Institution for Women.
In her letter, Veloso emotionally spoke about being separated from her children for nearly two decades, saying the coming Mother’s Day would mark the 17th year she has been unable to be with them.
She also questioned the legality of her continued detention in the Philippines, insisting she has not been convicted of any crime under Philippine law.
Her lawyers argued before the Supreme Court that the arrangement that brought her back from Indonesia did not automatically authorize Philippine authorities to continue enforcing her imprisonment. They also maintained that Veloso should be recognized as a trafficking victim under the Palermo Protocol.
According to her legal team, the government allegedly lacks clear legal authority to detain her since she faces no criminal conviction in Philippine courts tied to the case.
Veloso’s parents likewise appealed to the High Court, expressing hope they could still spend time with their daughter while they are still alive and that her children could finally reunite with their mother.
NUPL chair Edre Olalia said Veloso is also expected to testify before a Mandaluyong court in the remaining estafa and human trafficking cases against her former recruiters.
ia/xf
