25/09/2026
Worth sharing she is alive now..a wonderful gift of life given a second chance to live love & be loved.
MARY JANE VELOSO WAS GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE - AND TWO PRESIDENTS HELPED MAKE SURE SHE KEPT IT
From PNoy’s last-minute intervention that spared Mary Jane Veloso from ex*****on to Marcos Jr.’s diplomacy that brought her home and his eventual signing of her absolute pardon, the story of Mary Jane is also a story of how presidential decisions can mean the difference between life, death, and a second chance.
Mary Jane Veloso was hours away from being executed in Indonesia in April 2015.
Then President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III personally appealed to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to spare her life after Philippine authorities arrested Mary Jane’s alleged recruiter, allowing her to testify in the case against the people who may have used her as an unwitting drug mule.
That intervention worked.
Mary Jane’s ex*****on was suspended on April 29, 2015. The Philippine government specifically told Indonesia that her testimony was necessary in the criminal proceedings against her alleged recruiters. GMA’s timeline of the case records that the DFA credited Aquino’s appeal for saving her from the firing squad.
That is an important part of the story that should not be forgotten.
Because one year later, the political posture toward Mary Jane had changed.
In September 2016, Indonesian President Joko Widodo was quoted as saying that then-President Rodrigo Duterte had given the “go-ahead to proceed with the ex*****on” of Mary Jane after the two leaders discussed her case in Jakarta.
Duterte’s spokesman said the President told Widodo: “Follow your own laws. I will not interfere.”
Whatever wording was used behind closed doors, the contrast in approach is impossible to ignore.
Aquino went to Indonesia and personally appealed for a stay because Mary Jane’s testimony could help prosecute the people who allegedly recruited her.
Duterte, according to the Indonesian president’s account, told Indonesia to proceed with its own laws. According to his own Palace, he simply accepted whatever Indonesia’s judicial process would decide.
Mary Jane remained on death row.
Then came another intervention years later.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Philippines continued diplomatic negotiations with Indonesia. In January 2024, Marcos said he had received a commitment from Widodo that Mary Jane’s case would be reexamined. By November 2024, Marcos announced that the Philippines and Indonesia had reached an agreement for Mary Jane to be transferred home.
On December 18, 2024, after nearly 15 years in Indonesian detention, Mary Jane finally returned to the Philippines.
She was still a convicted prisoner under Indonesian law. She was not simply declared innocent. But she was alive, back on Philippine soil, and no longer facing ex*****on in Indonesia.
The Marcos administration itself made clear that the ultimate goal was for the Philippine President to eventually grant her clemency, while the Philippine government also emphasized that Mary Jane’s presence in the Philippines could help the ongoing prosecution of the people allegedly responsible for trafficking her.
So the historical record is actually more complicated - and more revealing - than the usual political slogans.
Noynoy Aquino helped save Mary Jane from the firing squad in 2015.
Rodrigo Duterte later faced a controversy over his reported position that Indonesia could proceed under its own laws, a characterization his administration denied as an explicit endorsement of ex*****on.
And Ferdinand Marcos Jr. eventually negotiated her transfer home in 2024, after years of diplomatic efforts.
Three presidents.
Three very different moments.
But for Mary Jane, the most important fact is this:
She was supposed to be executed in 2015. She is alive today. And that did not happen by accident.
It happened because, at critical moments, Philippine presidents chose to intervene diplomatically on her behalf - first to keep her alive long enough to testify, and later to bring her home.
That is the part of the story worth remembering.
