Unang Balita is the news segment of GMA Network's daily morning program, Unang Hirit. It's anchored by Arnold Clavio, Susan Enriquez, Ivan Mayrina, and Mariz Umali, and airs on GMA-7 Mondays to Fridays at 5:30 AM (PHL Time). For more videos from Unang Balita, visit http://www.gmanetwork.com/unangbalita.
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NewsTranscript
00:00After more than a decade of the Philippines' appeal to the government of Indonesia, finally, Mary Jane Veloso was released from prison.
00:08She will go back to the Philippines, but she will go straight to prison.
00:12The parents and lawyer of Mary Jane asked for absolute clemency.
00:17Here is the first news, Ivan Mayrina.
00:23Mary Jane Veloso is looking for a job abroad in April 2010.
00:27But according to her information, the person she was looking for in her bag was a recruiter in Indonesia.
00:33He had more than 2 kilos of heroin.
00:35She discovered it when she arrived at Yogyakarta Airport.
00:40Six months later, she was found guilty in a drug trafficking case and sentenced to death.
00:46We are afraid.
00:48I was in prison because the person who recruited her was scaring us.
00:54They said they are an international syndicate.
00:58They said they will kill us one by one or our children in Indonesia.
01:02After more than a decade in death row, Mary Jane will go back to the Philippines.
01:08This is the happiest thing in our life, the whole family, especially her children.
01:14There must be a reason for the president to be this confident.
01:19If you meet my written agreement, there is still no answer.
01:23But they are the first ones who came to us to talk about this.
01:27So we're extremely confident it will happen.
01:31Certainly, our president must be privy of information, which would explain his confidence.
01:39President Bongbong Marcos said that he will send Veloso back to the Philippines after more than a decade of negotiation with the Indonesian government.
01:46He thanked the new president of Indonesia, Prabowo Sobyanto.
01:5214 years and three administrations fought to save Veloso's life.
01:57The Philippines repeatedly filed a case against him.
02:00In April 2015, Veloso was sentenced to 10 convicts and was released in Indonesia.
02:07But President Noe Noe Aquino did not finish writing to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to ask for a clemency for Mary Jane.
02:16Aquino also spoke directly on the phone.
02:19Indonesian Foreign Minister Noe proposed to consider making Veloso a witness against those who recruited him.
02:25The Indonesian government has staked the implementation of the death sentence on our countrywoman Mary Jane Veloso.
02:34This is the power of the Philippines. Long live Mary Jane Veloso.
02:47This is also a consequence of the police action of the recruiter of Veloso, Christina Serio,
02:52who is facing qualified trafficking persons, illegal recruitment, and estafa.
02:57When the Duterte administration entered the position of the Philippines,
03:02they did what was agreed upon in the Indonesian law.
03:05He said, follow your own laws. I will not interfere.
03:09Indonesia allowed Veloso to give a testimony against Serio and another recruiter, Julius Lacanilau.
03:17Until this September 2022, when President Marcos sat down,
03:22Veloso's family gathered again to ask Widodo for an executive clemency.
03:27But Widodo's term ended when Mary Jane's case was not resolved.
03:32When Indonesian President Prabowo Sobyanto took office, the atmosphere changed.
03:38Indonesian Chief Minister for Law and Human Rights Yusril Izamahendra said that
03:43Veloso will be sent home under the new Indonesian policy of transfer of prisoners.
03:49The Philippines did not accept their conditions for this, despite the court's decision.
03:55That's why Mary Jane's return to the Philippines is not because of her right to stay in Nueva Ecija,
04:00but because of the pressure from the government.
04:03The Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong is one of the places where Mary Jane can be brought.
04:09Mary Jane will be released from the prison because Indonesia recognized that there is no death penalty in the Philippines.
04:17She will be serving the sentence that was meted in Indonesia.
04:20So she will continue her sentence.
04:24And I think it's worth emphasizing also that the most important aspect of this all is the difference in our laws.
04:32There, they allowed the death penalty. Here, we all know that it's abolished.
04:36So we don't have a death sentence here.
04:38Yusril Izamahendra was in the presence of President Marcos when he pardoned Veloso.
04:43What do his lawyers want to happen?
04:46Our pressure is absolute clemency,
04:49which even the Coordinating Minister of Indonesia expressly stated that
04:55it's now going to be the responsibility of the Philippine authorities whether or not to grant clemency.
05:02I hope that Mary Jane will be released from the prison.
05:08I ask the government to release Mary Jane.
05:14This is the first news.
05:16Ivan Meyrina for GMA Integrated News.
05:32.