The plea for clemency aired by former overseas Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso upon returning to the Philippines more than a year ago remains unanswered, even as she renewed her appeal in a handwritten open letter early this week.

“Unfortunately, no word yet on clemency. No word from Malacañang at all,” Josalee Deinla, one of the lawyers for Veloso, told CoverStory on Monday.

Veloso has been held at the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City since Dec. 18, 2024, when she was flown back to the country from Indonesia where she spent 14 years on death row on a drug trafficking conviction. (See “Mary Jane Veloso’s Christmas miracle,” CoverStory, Dec. 21, 2024.)

In July 2025, Malacañang press officer Claire Castro told CoverStory that Veloso’s executive clemency “is still under evaluation” by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. But on Monday Castro did not respond to a request for comment on the status of Veloso’s appeal. (See “Mary Jane Veloso is still languishing in jail. ‘What are you waiting for, Mr. President?’,” CoverStory, July 15, 2025.)

In November 2024, the President said that “everything is on the table” when asked about the  grant of clemency to Veloso. Since then, the public has heard nothing from him on the issue.

Veloso again appealed for her freedom in a handwritten open letter dated Jan. 28, insisting, “I have done nothing wrong and committed no crime against our country.”

The letter was released to the public by Migrante International, a nongovernment organization assisting OFWs and their families.

‘No other wish’ 

Writing in Filipino, the single mother of two expressed her longing to be fully reunited with family members after long years overseas. 

“I have no other wish but to be with my family, from whom I have been separated for nearly 16 years,” Veloso said. “I hope to be given the chance to care for my parents while they are still alive, and specially for my children, whom I did not have the opportunity to watch over when they were growing up. I want them to feel that they have a mother who loves them deeply.” 

Veloso said it has been very difficult for her to see her elderly parents traveling 8 to 10 hours from their hometown in Nueva Ecija to visit her in Mandaluyong, particularly because they have to raise money for their transportation and the food they bring to her. 

“My parents are no longer in the best of health because of their advanced age. But they ignore their discomfort; they just want to see me, to ease their longing,” she said.

At a press briefing in Malacañang on Monday, Undersecretary Castro said a personal letter to the President would be better than sentiments aired in an open letter.

“It would be better if this open letter were personal or delivered directly to the President so that a proper decision can be made on this matter,” she said. 

But the parents Cesar and Celia Veloso went to Malacañang as early as January 2025 to submit a petition for clemency for their daughter. And according to Migrante, numerous petitions have been sent to the Marcos administration calling for clemency for her. 

Now 41

Veloso marked her 41st birthday last Jan. 10 still in detention.

She was arrested at the old international airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in April 2010 after she was caught carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her suitcase, which, she said, was handed to her by Kristina Sergio, her recruiter and neighbor in Talavera, Nueva Ecija.

Through her lawyers, Veloso has filed a complaint of qualified human trafficking, estafa and illegal recruitment against her recruiters Sergio and Julius Lacanilao at the Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 89. 

But Veloso has yet to testify. “The case will be re-raffled to the Mandaluyong RTC for purposes of taking her testimony,” lawyer Deinla said. 

Veloso’s lawyers hope she would be able to testify this month. 

In 2020, Sergio and Lacanilao were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Nueva Ecija RTC Branch 88 for large-scale illegal recruitment that involved three other victims.

Lacanilao is detained at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City. Early last year, Sergio was transferred from the CIW to the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan. CS

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