Philippines | President Marcos Grants Absolute Pardon to Mary Jane Veloso

President Marcos Confirms Decision to Grant Absolute Pardon to Mary Jane Veloso

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has signed an absolute pardon for Mary Jane Veloso after more than a decade.

On Friday (September 25, 2026), the President confirmed the decision during a visit to Guiuan, Eastern Samar.

According to him, the pardon was officially signed the previous day, marking a major development in the case.

Veloso spent many years in detention in Indonesia after being convicted of drug trafficking. Her case became one of the most widely followed legal and diplomatic issues involving a Filipino overseas worker.

Over the years, her family, supporters, and various government officials worked to seek relief and assistance on her behalf.

In November 2024, the Philippines and Indonesia reached an agreement that paved the way for Veloso’s return to the country.

Prior to her transfer, Indonesian authorities had reduced her sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment.

The Philippine government had long been engaged in discussions with Indonesian officials regarding Veloso’s situation.

Efforts included requests for clemency, a reduction of her sentence, and the possibility of allowing her to serve her sentence in the Philippines.

On December 18, 2024, Veloso was formally transferred to the custody of the Bureau of Corrections in the Philippines. The move was viewed as an important step toward resolving her long-running case.

President Marcos said that one of the administration’s early goals was to remove Veloso from death row and seek a reduction in her sentence. The granting of an absolute pardon now completes a process that involved years of diplomatic efforts and cooperation between the two countries.

The President also expressed gratitude to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and the Indonesian government for their assistance and cooperation throughout the process.

Background

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina domestic worker and single mother from Nueva Ecija, Philippines, was arrested in April 2010 at Yogyakarta airport in Indonesia after authorities found 2.6 kg of heroin hidden in her luggage. She was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death by firing squad in October 2010.

Death row isolation cells on Nusakambangan Penal Island, Indonesia

Veloso has consistently maintained her innocence, claiming she was an accidental drug mule—tricked and exploited as a victim of human trafficking. She was allegedly recruited in the Philippines under false pretenses of a domestic job in Malaysia, then coerced into carrying the suitcase containing drugs without knowing its contents.

Philippine courts later recognized her as a trafficking victim, and her alleged recruiter faced charges there.

In April 2015, she received a dramatic last-minute reprieve from execution by firing squad—spared while others in the same batch were killed—after intense diplomatic appeals by then-Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.

The stay was granted so she could testify as a key witness in the Philippine human trafficking case against her recruiters, which helped expose the syndicate that duped her.

She remained on death row in Indonesia for nearly 10 more years amid ongoing campaigns for her release. In late 2024, following agreements between the Philippine and Indonesian governments (under Presidents Marcos Jr. and Prabowo Subianto), she was transferred back to the Philippines on December 18, 2024, to serve her sentence there.

Source: philnews.ph, Jay-R Santiago, September 25, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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