A SHAM

Behind Padded Locks

The Manila Collegian
4 min readJan 14, 2025

By Miguel Buzon

As birthdays are meant to be celebrated either with loved ones or even alone as long as happiness lingers, Mary Jane Veloso commemorated such an occasion inside a correction facility of her own country. Her 40th birthday was celebrated behind bars with her family only reaching her from the other side of the division.

Veloso is a daughter and a mother of two sons who was forced to work as a domestic worker overseas to provide for her family as she dreamed of finding better opportunities, yet suffered 14 years of unjust imprisonment since April of 2010 in Indonesia for drug trafficking. Maria Kristina Sergio, her job recruiter who is affiliated to an international drug trafficking ring, used her as a drug mule and planted 2.6 kg of heroin within the linings of the suitcase.

During those years of imprisonment, empty promises were handed to her by both ends of authoritative powers of Philippines and Indonesia despite being economic allies since 1949. Four administrations have passed under the leaderships of Arroyo, Aquino, Duterte and the current Marcos administration, and yet they continuously failed to provide liberty and justice to Veloso.

She was already placed on death row in 2010 but there was a temporary prohibition via moratorium of executions which halted in 2008 before resuming these penalties in 2013. She was also granted temporary reprieve in 2015. Since then, 48 convicts were supposed to be executed in 2018 but none of these executions were pushed through, leading to 308 people remaining on death row. Moreover, the eight other human trafficking victims of Sergio were executed regardless if they denied involvement or not.

Despite pleading denial over the crime, the court declared in October 2010 that “the accused could not prove the truth of her unawareness in court, so the accused’s denial cannot legally be used as a reason to free her of criminal responsibility.” No proper assistance nor channels were given to her, which became a challenge to comprehend the accusations stacked against her. What is worse is that Veloso was only informed after the trial by a priest that she would be sentenced to death.

After 14 years, when the so-called “justice” was finally served, Philippine authorities appeased her by detaining her for another indefinite period in a prison cell. Her fate is once again sealed with uncertainty on whether she will be granted the freedom she very well deserves or will she continue to rot in prison as family relatives would visit her but only for a moment — a moment that will be gone in a glimpse of an eye as the visiting hours run out.

Her suffering is a testimony of how the current and past administrations handle the overall welfare of OFWs with their human rights stripped off from due protection despite being called modern-day heroes who work not just for their families but also to improve the Philippine economy via remittances which is basically a quid-pro-quo relationship between the OFWs and the nation itself.

Romanticizing them as modern day heroes overshadow the real problem faced by OFWs — the abuse, exploitation, and deception being thrown at them by their employers. Data from the Harvard International Review show that as of 2020, approximately 75% of the 23,986 reported abuse cases are targeted to women.

Veloso is one of the many OFW victims who experienced such distress as there are those who still continue to face workplace violations, maltreatment or mistreatment, immigration or paper-related problems, contract substitution, health or medical-related problems, personal problems, sexual abuse or harassment and rape, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reports.

But, no human being should suffer such conditions because of a flawed system that is biased against those who are underneath the heels of the powerful, including outsiders such as OFWs. An example is the case of Veloso where both sides negotiate in a game of Indonesian capital punishments.

It took 10 years just to prove the innocence of Veloso in a separate case filed against Sergio and her accomplices in 2020, which just shows how the bureaucratic processes in the administration have created delays in delivering sentences towards alleged criminals, thus, delaying justice towards victims.

This incident is a wakeup call for both Indonesian and Philippine governments on such an outdated and corrupt justice system wherein both countries also had death penalties imposed on the law at some point in time. How can these institutions even ensure that those who are put on death row are not just mere victims by the hands of someone more powerful such as a mastermind or an oppressor.

Clemency should be given at this point as 14 years of imprisonment is more than enough for a crime that has been lacking evidence ever since. The main perpetrators including Sergio were already arrested meaning their testimonies could prove the innocence of Veloso. The Philippine government can now make clemency possible as the Indonesian government stated that they would respect any decision made by the local authorities in the country.

And yet, she is still behind bars awaiting for a taste of her promised freedom.

Laws are placed to safeguard the rights of Filipinos, but they instead get desecrated as they are not properly implemented as there are those who still tend to bow down towards foreign powers. The nation lives in an age of an obsolete system where the impoverished gets left in the rubble as justice gets continuously delayed.

This then leaves a question regarding the grim fates awaiting OFWs: how long will they realize that as they provide for their families back home and uplift the Philippine economy, the Philippine government, the hidden villain in this holiday story that it is, consistently trample on their rights and places the country in greater turmoil?

The story of one Mary Jane Veloso is a story of the plight of many OFWs, and how history is manifesting itself in various forms of abuse towards them.

--

--

The Manila Collegian
The Manila Collegian

Written by The Manila Collegian

The Official Student Publication of the University of the Philippines Manila. Magna est veritas et prevaelebit.

No responses yet