She will be coming home exactly a week before Christmas day.
Indonesian authorities confirmed on Monday, December 16, that detained Filipina Mary Jane Veloso will be sent back to the Philippines early Wednesday morning.
Veloso had since been moved out of her detention cell in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to the capital Jakarta, where her transfer agreement will be finalized with Filipino government officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
Her repatriation to the Philippines comes weeks after officials in Indonesia and their local counterparts confirmed the move that will allow her to continue her sentence in her home country.
Then 25-year-old Mary Jane Veloso was arrested after she was caught bringing in 2.6 kilograms-worth of illegal drugs, which was wrapped in aluminum foil inside the lining of a suitcase, to Indonesia upon her arrival at Yogyakarta’s airport.
It was later revealed that Veloso had received the suitcase from a person named “Christine” in Kuala Lumpur, where she was also given $500.
In 2014, Veloso was revealed to have been placed on death row after former Indonesian President Joko Widodo , with an execution having been scheduled back in April 2015.
Then-President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino made an unprecedented move when he bypassed protocols to personally contact Indonesian officials.
Aquino requested making Mary Jane Veloso a witness after the one of her recruiters, Maria Kristina Sergio, surrendered to the Philippine police and multiple cases have since been filed against the personality — human trafficking, illegal recruitment, and estafa.
The reprieve was granted, with former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and Cabinet Secretary Rene Almemdras breaking the news that Veloso’s life was spared an hour after her supposed execution.
Her transfer back to the Philippines, more than a decade in the making, happens after the recent changes in policies in Indonesia, where it is now preparing to send convicts with similar cases back to their home country.
The Philippines and Indonesia, coincidentally, is also marking the 75th anniversary of its bilateral relations this November 2024.