This was published 9 years ago
'My mama is alive! My mama is alive!': Filipina Mary Jane Veloso's 11th-hour reprieve from firing squad
By Lindsay Murdoch
- Mary Jane Veloso spared from execution as Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran killed by firing squad
- Philippine President Benigno Aquino made plea for life of Mary Jane Veloso
Bangkok: Mary Jane Veloso had come to accept she was going to be executed.
"Don't think that I died because I did something wrong," the 30-year-old Filipina maid told her 12-year-old son Mark Daniel in a cell on Indonesia's Nusakambangan prison island on Saturday, relatives who were there told Philippines media.
"Be proud of your mother because she died owning up to the sins of others," she told Mark.
On Wednesday, Veloso's two sons were asleep in a van parked alongside a road in Cilacap, near the prison island, when they were woken by journalists and told their mother's life had been spared.
Mary Jane Veloso in a prison fashion parade earlier this month.Credit: AFP
"My mama is alive! My mama is alive," they yelled as jumped up and down.
Veloso also asked her 55-year-old mother Celia not to shed tears over her death, which she thought at the time was imminent.
"Maybe this is the Lord's plan for me … if he would give me a chance to live, I'll devote myself to serving others," she said.
Veloso's life was dramatically spared late on Tuesday shortly before she was due to be executed by a firing squad alongside Bali Nine pair Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan and six other convicted drug offenders.
Protesters outside the Indonesian embassy in Manila wait for news of Veloso's fate. Credit: AP
Philippine President Benigno Aquino had ramped up lobbying of his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo to save Veloso at a summit of south-east Asian leaders in Malaysia, which began on Sunday.
The story of how Veloso, who also has a six-year-old son, was duped into carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin to Indonesia in 2010 has captured the hearts of many Filipinos and prompted a massive "Save Mary Jane" campaign in her country.
Activists wave flags after it was announced that Veloso's execution had been stayed. Credit: Reuters
In a hand-written letter from jail, Veloso described the moment that customs officials at Indonesia's Yogyakarta airport discovered light brown powder in a plastic bag sewn into a compartment of a suitcase she was carrying.
"My body felt so cold. I could not speak. I just cried and cried," she wrote.
Marites Veloso, sister of Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, talks to the media after visiting her sister on Wednesday.Credit: AP
"I knew my life was finished … drugs are No. 1 illegal."
Philippine investigators believe that Veloso was unknowingly recruited to carry the suitcase.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, right, returns from the ASEAN summit in Malaysia on Monday.Credit: Reuters
On Tuesday, only hours before the planned executions, Maria Kristina Sergio, who police allege recruited Veloso, surrendered at a police station in Manila.
Police had earlier charged her with illegal recruitment and human trafficking in Veloso's case.
In her letter from jail, Veloso, who is from an impoverished family, told how she was desperate to find work after she was raped while working as a maid in Dubai and finished only 10 months of a two-year contact.
She said Sergio, a neighbour who her family knew well, promised she would find her a job in Malaysia, where she went frequently to buy shampoo, lotions and other goods to bring back to the Philippines to sell.
While in Kuala Lumpur Sergio took Veloso shopping for clothes and her supposed boyfriend, a man named Prince, gave her a suitcase to carry them.
He was with two other men, one of them very fat.
"We returned to our hotel ... when we were inside the room I asked Kristina why the bag was so heavy," Veloso wrote.
"She said it was because it is brand new. I checked all the zipper and pockets of the bag," she wrote.
"All were empty and I did not think that something was wrong with it."
Veloso wrote that Sergio gave her $US500 ($625) and a ticket to fly to Indonesia for a seven-day holiday before she was to return to take up a maid's job that had been arranged for her in Malaysia.
"I did not have a choice. When I get back, I could start my work because it is important for me and my children," she wrote.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency investigators believe Veloso was the victim of traffickers in Malaysia who use Kuala Lumpur international airport as a transit point for drugs, mainly from China, that are destined for other countries.
Traffickers often con unsuspecting women into carrying drugs on international flights arriving and departing Kuala Lumpur.
Last year Malaysian police arrested 32 people, 18 of them foreigners, for allegedly carrying drugs worth about $US20 million through the Malaysian capital.
Defence lawyers say Sydney grandmother Elvira Pinto Exposto, 52, was duped in a similar way.
She is facing execution by hanging if she is found guilty of drugs charges in Kuala Lumpur.
Indonesia's Attorney-General HM Prasetyo announced that Mr Joko had accepted Mr Aquino's plea to save Veloso at the 11th hour as many Filipinos prayed and held candlelight vigils for her across the Philippines.
He said an exception was made "because there was a last-minute plea from the Philippine President".
"There was someone who surrendered today," Mr Prasetyo said.
"She claimed she was the one who recruited Mary Jane."