Philippine church groups welcomed the absolute pardon granted to Mary Jane Veloso but said her freedom should renew efforts to fight human trafficking, poverty, and exploitation.
The Philippine Interfaith Movement Against Human Trafficking (PIMAHT) said Veloso remained a trafficking victim after nearly 16 years of incarceration.
“We maintain that Mary Jane Veloso is a victim of human trafficking,” the group said in a statement.
PIMAHT is convened by representatives of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.
The movement said it joined the nation “in prayer and celebration” following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s decision to grant Veloso an absolute pardon.
Veloso had been on death row in Indonesia since 2015 following her conviction for drug trafficking. She received a temporary reprieve from execution that year and was eventually reunited with her family.
PIMAHT said it had long joined appeals for Veloso to be spared the death penalty.
“Her freedom speaks powerfully to our continuing quest for justice for victims of human trafficking,” the movement said.
It said Veloso’s case reflected the experience of migrant workers who become vulnerable to trafficking while seeking better opportunities.
“Her story is also the story of countless migrant workers who have fallen victim to trafficking networks and to systems that perpetuate the cycle of poverty,” PIMAHT said.
The movement said poverty and the lack of decent employment opportunities had driven Veloso to leave her family and children in search of a better life.
Her experience, it said, showed how people facing difficult circumstances can be compelled to take risks in the hope of providing for their families.
PIMAHT said Veloso “endured incarceration for a crime she has consistently maintained she did not commit” and was “caught in a web of vulnerability, exploitation, and systemic injustice.”
The group said she was also a victim of poverty, traffickers, and recruiters who preyed on her vulnerability.
PIMAHT honored the “courage and resilience” of Veloso and her family and recognized churches, civil society organizations, advocates, human rights defenders and movements in the Philippines and abroad that sustained calls for justice in her case.
“After years of appeals, action, and prayer, we finally witness Mary Jane’s freedom,” the statement said.
The movement warned that human trafficking continues to thrive on the vulnerability of poor people who have limited opportunities.
It said some are left with little recourse but to take the proverbial “kapit sa patalim,” or desperate chances simply to survive.
“As churches and people of faith, we affirm the sanctity and dignity of every human life,” PIMAHT said.
The movement said Veloso’s freedom should also become a call for stronger collective action against trafficking.
“Her freedom is a moment of thanksgiving, but it must also be a call to a collective action,” it said.
PIMAHT said Veloso’s case should renew efforts to protect victims and potential victims of human trafficking.
“May her story remind us that the struggle against trafficking is also a struggle against poverty, exploitation, and every system that treats human beings as disposable,” the movement said.
The statement was signed by PIMAHT chairperson Minnie Anne Mata-Calub, who is also general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines; Bishop Socrates Mesiona, chairman of the Catholic bishops’ Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People; and Bishop Noel Pantoja, national director of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches.
