Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina who spent nearly 15 years behind bars in Indonesia after being sentenced to death for drug trafficking, has issued a fresh appeal for her release through an open letter written from detention in the Philippines.
Veloso, who is currently being held at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong, wrote the letter dated Jan. 28, thanking supporters and describing the hardship her imprisonment continues to cause her family, particularly her elderly parents who travel long hours just to visit her.
“I want you to know how difficult it has been for me to see my parents, who are already of old age, traveling all the way [from] Nueva Ecija, for [eight to] 10 hours just to visit me,” she said, as translated by Migrante International.
“They put aside their own health conditions and their old age to ease their longing for me. But for some reason, after one year, I am still here in prison even though I have not committed any wrongdoing, even in our country.”
Veloso also expressed her desire to reunite with her family after years of separation, saying she hopes to care for her parents and reconnect with her children.
“I wish for nothing more than to be with my family who have been separated from me for more than 16 years. 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.”
Her latest plea comes as her parents, Celia and Cesar Veloso, have asked the Supreme Court to order her immediate release through a 19-page petition, arguing that her continued detention is illegal because it is not supported by an arrest warrant or a confinement order issued by a court. They also maintained that she has no pending criminal case in the Philippines.
The case has also drawn renewed attention in Congress. In December 2025, Gabriela Party-list Rep. Sarah Jane Elago filed House Resolution No. 583, which recognized Veloso as a victim of human trafficking and called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to grant her clemency.
Veloso’s legal troubles began in April 2010, when she was arrested at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta after authorities found more than 2.6 kilos of heroin in her possession. Veloso maintained that she did not know what was inside her luggage, saying it had been handed to her by her recruiters, Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao.
She was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death in October that year, triggering a lengthy international campaign to stop her execution.
Former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III repeatedly sought clemency for Veloso, including appeals to then-Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who temporarily halted executions. Her execution remained suspended until the administration of President Joko Widodo began in 2014.
Aquino reportedly raised the issue again during Widodo’s state visit in February 2015 and later sent another request when then-Vice President Jejomar Binay traveled to Indonesia.
In April 2015, Veloso was moved to the maximum security prison island of Nasa Kumabangan, where she was scheduled to be executed. Days later, Sergio surrendered to authorities, and Aquino’s administration reportedly sought to have Veloso turned into a state witness to help Indonesian authorities pursue a drug trafficking syndicate.
Veloso received a last-minute reprieve from execution at 1 a.m. on April 20.
Reports also stated that former president Rodrigo Duterte later gave Widodo the “go-ahead” to proceed with Veloso’s execution in September 2016.
On Nov. 20, 2024, Marcos announced that the Philippines had reached an agreement to bring Veloso home. Veloso returned to the country on the morning of Dec. 18, 2024, and expressed hope that Marcos would grant her executive clemency, though the President said at the time that such a move was still “far-off.”
