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NewsTranscript
00:00Good evening Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
00:04Mary Jane Veloso has been saved from the death penalty of the OFW.
00:10After more than a decade in the death row of Indonesia.
00:15President Bongbong Marcos announced that Veloso will be able to return to the Philippines.
00:19It is a great thing that his family thanked him.
00:23But Mary Jane's return to the country is not at home, but in prison.
00:29And Ivan Mayrina is in touch.
00:35After 14 years in prison, Mary Jane Veloso will return home.
00:39The OFW in the death row in Indonesia.
00:42That's what President Bongbong Marcos announced this morning.
00:45The President said in his Facebook account.
00:47It is a great thing that more than a decade of talking to the Indonesian government.
00:51The President also thanked the new President of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto.
01:00If you meet my written agreement, there is still no answer.
01:05But they are the first to come to us to talk about this.
01:10So we're extremely confident it will happen.
01:13And certainly our President must be pretty of information which will explain his confidence.
01:21Mary Jane was sentenced to death after being charged for more than 2 kilos of heroin
01:26that was discovered in her luggage when she arrived at Yogyakarta Airport in 2010.
01:30But Mary Jane said that she was fooled by her recruiters,
01:33who brought the alleged luggage that she did not know that it contained drugs.
01:38The news that Mary Jane will be allowed to return to the Philippines
01:41is more than the excitement of her family in Nueva Ecija.
01:44Especially that her children are just kids when she was last with them.
01:48This is the happiest thing in our life, the whole family.
01:52Especially her children.
01:54It's been a long time.
01:56Now, this is it.
01:58God has heard our prayers.
02:01Her pregnancy has arrived.
02:04I hope that Mary Jane will be able to return to the Philippines.
02:07I hope that she won't be jailed.
02:10I ask the government that if Mary Jane will be able to return to the Philippines,
02:14I hope she will be able to return to the Philippines.
02:16But the alleged return to the Philippines is not in their home in Nueva Ecija,
02:20but in Piitan, which is still being targeted by the government.
02:23Under the Prison Transfer Agreement,
02:25the physical custody will only be transferred to a prison in the Philippines.
02:29But the legal custody is still in Indonesia.
02:32The Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong
02:35is one of the places where Mary Jane can be brought to.
02:37Even if she will be jailed, Mary Jane will be saved from the jail
02:40because Indonesia is aware that there is no death penalty in the Philippines.
02:44When she arrives here, she will be serving the sentence that was meted in Indonesia.
02:49So she will just continue her sentence.
02:52And I think it's worth emphasizing also that the most important aspect of this all
02:57is the difference in our laws.
03:00There, they allowed the death penalty.
03:02Here, we all know that it's abolished.
03:05So we don't have a death sentence here.
03:07But Mary Jane's lawyers want something to happen.
03:09Our law is absolute remedy,
03:12which even the Coordinating Minister of Indonesia
03:16expressly stated that it's now going to be the responsibility
03:20of the Philippine authorities, whether or not to grant clemency.
03:25Aside from Mary Jane, there are 57 Filipinos around the world
03:28facing the death penalty based on the DFA data.
03:32For GMA Integrated News, Ivan Mejrina, Katutok, 24 Hours.
03:38Let's go back to Mary Jane Veloso's case.
03:41The battle to save Veloso from the death sentence
03:44was reached by three administrations.
03:47Let's go back to the repeated appeals of the Philippines to Indonesia
03:52and how the two countries came to an agreement
03:57after 14 years of J.P. Soriano's rule.
04:0514 years and three administrations.
04:08For that long, the Philippines fought against our countrywoman Mary Jane Veloso
04:13who was sentenced to death in Indonesia because of illegal drugs.
04:17The work in Indonesia was the promise of Mary Jane's recruiter
04:21when she flew to Indonesia in April 2010.
04:24But according to her information,
04:27the suitcase that the Philippine recruiters gave her
04:30contained more than 2 kilos of heroin
04:33that she discovered when she arrived at Yogyakarta Airport.
04:36Six months after that,
04:38Veloso was found guilty of drug trafficking
04:41and sentenced to death.
04:44We were scared.
04:46When my son was imprisoned,
04:49we were scared because of the recruiter.
04:52They say they are an international syndicate.
04:55If we were alone,
04:57they would kill our son in Indonesia.
05:02After many appeals,
05:04in April 2015,
05:06Veloso was found guilty of drug trafficking
05:09and sentenced to death in Indonesia.
05:11But this did not continue
05:13after Noe Pangulong Noe Noe Aquino called the Indonesian Foreign Ministry
05:17following the police action of Veloso's recruiter,
05:20Christina Serio.
05:22Aquino said that Veloso will be a state witness
05:25against the syndicate that recruited him.
05:29The Indonesian government has stated
05:32the implementation of the death sentence
05:35on our countryman, Mary Jane Veloso.
05:41Under the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte,
05:45the position of the Philippines
05:47is to do what is in the law of Indonesia.
05:53He said, follow your own laws.
05:55I will not interfere.
05:56Indonesia allowed Veloso to give a testimony
06:00against Serio and his other recruiter,
06:03Julius Lakinilaw.
06:06Until September 2022,
06:09under the leadership of President Bongbong Marcos,
06:12Veloso's family again appealed
06:14and asked Widodo for an executive clemency.
06:17But Widodo's term was over
06:19when Mary Jane's case was not resolved.
06:23When the new Indonesian President,
06:26Prabowo Sobyanto came to power,
06:28the atmosphere changed.
06:31Prabowo personally went to the Philippines
06:35to personally visit Marcos
06:37in September before his inauguration.
06:40And during his visit as President in October,
06:44along with the visits of President Marcos,
06:47the DFA said,
06:48Indonesia also has a new law to be implemented.
06:52Indonesia is formulating a policy
06:56of transfer of foreign persons
07:01to their host countries.
07:03Indonesia itself has a law
07:06which will take effect in 2026
07:09about what in effect would be,
07:16if not necessarily the abolition of the death penalty,
07:21but some sort of informal non-implementation
07:26of the death penalty.
07:27The new administration of President Prabowo
07:29wants to open a new chapter in its relations
07:32with foreign countries,
07:33including the Philippines.
07:34Under the agreement to allow Mary Jane to return
07:37to the DFA,
07:39there was no change
07:40that Indonesia asked for in the Philippines.
07:43Indonesians have not requested any payback,
07:46any quid pro quo for this.
07:49May I clarify,
07:51this is not in return for anything.
07:54For GMA Integrated News,
07:56JP Soriano,
07:57for 24 Hours.