Statement
Migrante Canada
Migrante Canada welcomes the news about a possible transfer of Mary Jane Veloso to the Philippines to serve her sentence and recognizes this as a positive development.
It has been 14 years since Filipino domestic worker Mary Jane Veloso was arrested in April 2010 by Indonesian authorities for alleged drug trafficking and was sentenced to death by firing squad.
It has been nine years since Mary Jane was spared from her execution in April 2015.
This temporary reprieve was because of the global campaign, in and out of the Philippines, to save her life.
Her traffickers are already arrested and convicted, yet she remains on death row. For fourteen years, the Philippine government has failed to make significant actions or interventions to help bring Mary Jane home. With the new President Prabowo Subianto in office in Indonesia, the opportunity to ask for clemency for Mary Jane and bring her home to the Philippines is more urgent than ever.
Ever since her arrest by the Indonesian government, Mary Jane and her family, with migrants and human rights organizations, lawyers, community groups, women groups, and other sectors around the globe have tirelessly fought to prove Mary Jane’s innocence, to seek justice, and to finally come home to her family. This positive development is a result of this continued struggle for justice, not only for Mary Jane, but for all those who fell victims to illegal recruitment.
The continued efforts and active participation of migrant workers in the struggle for their rights and welfare are for a society where families are not forced to separate in order to survive.
Migrante Canada recognizes that the forced migration of Filipino men and women from the Philippines is one of the major consequences of landlessness, poverty, government corruption, absence or lack of basic services for the people, absence of national industrialization, unemployment, and no decent jobs with living wages. Forced migration puts our kababayan at great risk and precarious working and living conditions in the host countries.
Migrante Canada calls on President Marcos Jr. to utilize and follow up all possible avenues to grant Mary Jane clemency and secure her safe transfer to the Philippines.
Migrante Canada calls on President Marcos Jr. to work with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto for the grant of clemency to Mary Jane.
Fourteen years is enough!
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