Mary Jane Veloso’s lawyers have asked the Philippine Supreme Court to explain why the woman who once narrowly escaped execution in Indonesia remains behind bars in the Philippines nearly a year after her return, despite facing no criminal charges under local law.
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The petition has revived international attention on a case that for years sat at the intersection of labour migration, human trafficking and Southeast Asia’s harsh drug laws – and continues to raise questions about how Manila protects vulnerable citizens overseas.
“Today, a petition for the writ of habeas corpus is being filed before the Supreme Court on behalf of Mary Jane Veloso – an overseas Filipino worker and a victim of human trafficking whose long struggle for justice has become emblematic of the failures and contradictions of our legal and political systems,” the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) said in a statement on Friday.
Veloso, then 25, was arrested at an airport in Yogyakarta in 2010 after officials found 2.6kg (5.7lbs) of heroin hidden in her luggage. She was convicted and sentenced to death.
The single mother of two has maintained her innocence, saying that she was deceived by recruiters who promised her a job abroad as a domestic helper. Advocates argue she was a victim of human trafficking.
She remained at Yogyakarta Women’s Prison and was scheduled to be executed by a 13-member firing squad in 2015. But she won a dramatic last-minute reprieve after then-president Benigno Aquino III appealed to his Indonesian counterpart that Veloso be spared and allowed to testify as to how she had been duped into being a drug mule by a criminal syndicate.