DSWD provides financial aid to Mary Jane Veloso

Make this your preferred source to get more updates from this publisher on Google.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office 3 provided financial aid to former Overseas Filipino Worker Mary Jane Veloso and her family in their home in General Mamerto Natividad, Nueva Ecija after she was granted absolute pardon.

On Saturday, Veloso returned to her hometown and was warmly welcomed by her friends and family in Barangay Burol, which she had not seen for 16 years. The municipality also gave her a cake and a tarpaulin to mark her personal milestone.

Mary Jane spent dinner with her loved ones at the home that was the fruit of her years of working as an OFW. To celebrate her freedom, she had her favorite dish: pinakbet and grilled tilapia.

Bataan 2nd District Representative Albert Raymond "Abet" Garcia said Tuesday night that the Office of the President (OP) was "seriously considering" the granting of absolute pardon to Veloso.

He reported matters during deliberations on the proposed OP budget, which he is sponsoring in the House of Representatives.

Garcia said the pardon was being considered "on humanitarian grounds in support of the government's commitment to protecting Filipino migrant workers."

Veloso maintained that she was innocent and that she was unknowingly used as a drug mule.

The District Court of Justice of Sieman in Yogjakarta, Indonesia sentenced her to death on October 11, 2010, but it was commuted in 2015 following an appeal from the late President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III.

In December 2024, Indonesian authorities agreed to transfer Veloso to Philippine custody. She was detained at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, initially serving reclusion perpetua, which carries a prison term of 20 years and one day to 40 years. —Mariel Celine Serquiña/RF, GMA News