FILE PHOTO: The mother of Mary Jane Veloso, Celia, with her family, speaking during Labor Day celebration at Mendiola in Manila in 2015. INQUIRER PHOTO/ARNOLD ALMACEN
MANILA, Philippines — The mother of Mary Jane Veloso, an overseas Filipino worker on Indonesian death row for drug trafficking, said her daughter may not be safe in the Philippines.
Veloso’s mom, Celia, was reacting to the announcement of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that her daughter would be sent back to the Philippines after 14 years in an Indonesian jail.
Manila and Jakarta agreed on Veloso’s return to the Philippines, but it remains unclear if she would still be imprisoned upon her return.
For Celia, it would be better for her daughter to stay detained in Indonesia than be jailed in the Philippines.
“Para po sa akin, sa amin pong pamilya, kung iuuwi si Mary Jane at ikukulong din po, gugustuhin ko po sa Indonesia siya nakakulong,” Celia said in a dwPM interview.
(For me, for our family, if Mary Jane is brought home and would still be imprisoned, I would rather that she stay imprisoned in Indonesia.)
READ: Mary Jane Veloso is coming home to the Philippines – Marcos
She then explained: “Dahil mas safe po ang kalooban namin dahil nakikita namin ang trato kay Mary Jane talagang mahal na mahal nila. Eh dito sa Pilipinas, hindi po kami nakakasiguro dahil international na sindikato po ang kalaban namin.”
(Because we feel safer because we see the treatment of Mary Jane whom they love so much. But here in the Philippines, we are not sure because we are against an international syndicate.)
READ: Timeline: The case of Mary Jane Veloso
Celia also recalled an incident where armed men once stormed their residence.
This prompted the police and the National Bureau of Investigation to secure their home, while Mary Jane’s husband and children, as well as her parents hid in a safe house in Manila.
Nevertheless, Celia said Mary Jane’s children were happy upon hearing that their mother will return to the country.
“Her two children are very happy. They said ‘hoping that mama could finally be home’, that’s what they said,” she explained in Filipino.
In 2010, Veloso was arrested at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin.
Veloso maintained she was unaware of the contents of her luggage as it was only given by her recruiters, identified as Julius Lacanilao and Maria Cristina Sergio.