Marilyn Cahatol

Mary Jane Veloso arrives at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City on December 18, 2024. She was brought for booking and documentation at the facility after spending 14-years in jail in Indonesia, where she will serve her remaining life sentence as the family continues to call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to grant her clemency. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

Mary jane Veloso

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/177053543238720211218-mary-jane-veloso-womens-correctional-MT-16.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="Mary Jane Veloso arrives at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City on December 18, 2024. She was brought for booking and documentation at the facility after spending 14-years in jail in Indonesia, where she will serve her remaining life sentence as the family continues to call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to grant her clemency. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News "/><span class="fr-inner" spellcheck="false" style="text-align:left">Mary Jane Veloso arrives at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City on December 18, 2024. She was brought for booking and documentation at the facility after spending 14-years in jail in Indonesia, where she will serve her remaining life sentence as the family continues to call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to grant her clemency.<em> Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News </em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — Former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Mary Jane Veloso expressed gratitude to supporters and appealed for continued help in campaigning for her freedom in an open letter dated January 28. </p><p>Veloso, a victim of human trafficking, was detained for over 14 years in Indonesia, where she was initially placed on death row but was spared through then-President Benigno Aquino III’s request to then-Indonesian President Joko Widodo.</p><p>In December 2024, the former OFW was <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2024/12/17/mary-jane-veloso-back-in-ph-wednesday-counsel-seeks-christmas-pardon-1112">brought back to the Philippines </a>and has since been detained at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong.</p><p>Veloso, who was convicted for drug trafficking, thanked those who supported her and her family and acknowledged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s efforts to bring her back to her homeland. </p><p>“I would like to express my gratitude for all the help and support you have given me and my family. I may not know you all well, but I feel your care and love as if you were my family,” Veloso said in the letter translated by Migrante International. </p><p>“You are all here fighting alongside me since the very beginning until now. You continue to help me attain justice and my freedom,” she added. </p><p>Veloso shared that her return “gave me renewed hope and I continue to have faith in God and hope that it will not take a long time before I am reunited with my loved ones again.”</p><div> </div><div><strong>‘I WISH TO BE WITH MY FAMILY’</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Veloso, who said she wishes to be reunited with her family after more than 16 years, asked for continued support in lobbying for her freedom. </p><p>“[F]or some reason, after one year, I am still here in prison even though I have not committed any wrongdoing, even in our country,” she said.</p><p>“I wish for nothing more than to be with my family who have been separated from me for more than 16 years,” she said. </p><p>She said she wants to be allowed to take care of her parents in their old age. She said they have travel for 8 to 10 hours from Nueva Ecija to Mandaluyong to visit her in the correctional facility.</p><p>“I hope to be given the opportunity to take care of my parents while they are still alive and especially my children whom I did not have the chance to watch grow up. I want to make them feel that they have a mother who loves them very much,” she said.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/1/10/mary-jane-veloso-spends-40th-birthday-in-jail-lawyers-ask-for-her-freedom-0957">Mary Jane Veloso spends 40th birthday in jail; lawyers ask for her freedom</a></div><div> </div><div><strong>CASE</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Veloso was apprehended by customs officials at the Audisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on April 25, 2010.</p><p>Prior to her apprehension in Indonesia, Veloso was with her godsister and recruiter Ma. Kristina &quot;Tintin&quot; Sergio in Malaysia, where a job was supposedly waiting for them. </p><p>When the alleged job suddenly became unavailable, Sergio sent Veloso to Indonesia, along with a bag that concealed 2.6 kilograms of heroin. Veloso has maintained she did not know about the contraband.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2024/12/18/timeline-mary-jane-veloso-s-decade-long-ordeal-from-indonesian-death-row-to-miracle-homecoming-1327">TIMELINE: Mary Jane Veloso&#x27;s decade-long ordeal from Indonesian death row to &#x27;miracle&#x27; homecoming</a></div><p>Migrante said multiple petitions and appeals have been sent to the Marcos administration appealing for clemency for Veloso.</p><p>Her supporters also filed an appeal to the justice system to expedite her case against her traffickers, as well as a habeas corpus petition questioning the legality of her detention in the Philippines.</p><p>No measure has been granted yet, Migrante said. </p><p>The group called on Filipinos and the global community to support Veloso’s call for freedom.  </p><p> “[A]s Marcos Jr. refuses to hear her every appeal for her freedom, let us collectively amplify Mary Jane’s story and voice from prison to Malacañang and win her the justice and freedom she deserves,” said Joanna Concepcion, chairperson of Migrante. <strong>— With a report from Jauhn Etienne Villaruel, ABS-CBN News</strong></p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><div style="text-align:center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U1d8cS0YGYc?si=lzYoQq1nXhf_SLxx" title="YouTube video player" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>

<p>Former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Mary Jane Veloso expressed gratitude to supporters and appealed for continued help in campaigning for her freedom in an open letter dated Jan. 28.</p>

Former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Mary Jane Veloso expressed gratitude to supporters and appealed for continued help in campaigning for her freedom in an open letter dated Jan. 28.

Mary Jane Veloso appeals for continued support for freedom in open letter

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Mary Jane Veloso appeals for continued support for freedom in open letter

Marilyn Cahatol,

ABS-CBN News

Published Feb 08, 2026 03:59 PM PHT

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Mary Jane Veloso

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