The Mary Jane Veloso Case - Why it matters so much to so many

The case of Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina foreign worker who traveled to Indonesia after being lured to Malaysia on false promises by a trusted family friend.

Mary Jane married young, she was only 17. This is not uncommon in the Philippines, a deeply Catholic nation and one where divorce remains illegal. Her and her husband separated and she was left in a position where she had no choice but to support the two children that were produced by the marriage. The Philippines is a nation with a lot of poverty and not a lot of opportunity and the only way that Mary Jane could support her young family was to join the thronging masses of Philippine citizens that go overseas each and every year. She had a job in Dubai – a country where as recently as 2013 there was an outrage when maidsdemanded minimum wage.

In Dubai she would maybe have been earning $400 a month if she was lucky. This sounds like not much money but it is close to four times what she could have earned in the Philippines where pay rates – assuming someone can find work – can range between $2.50 to $3 per day for unskilled workers. She left her job when her employer tried to rape her. She then arranged a job in Malaysia, a country notorious for underpaying and abusing domestic helpers.

How she came about her job in Malaysia is where things begin to get extremely sinister. The daughter of her godfather, Maria Kirstina Sergio, told her that a friend of hers in Malaysia was looking for a domestic helper. Sergio asked for a substantial payment from Veloso to cover employment costs. After Mary Jane had furnished Sergio with 20,000 Pesos (about 470 USD), a cellphone and a motorbike they traveled together to Kaula Lumpur so that Sergio could introduce her to her new employer before returning to The Philippines.

It was only on her arrival in KL that Veloso was informed that the job was no longer available, Sergio told Veloso not to worry and that she would find her another one. Sergio then spent the next three days taking Veloso on shopping sprees in the Malaysian capital. She then informed her godsister that she had found her a new position, this time in Indonesia, that she would pay for the airline ticket and that she had to pack. Sergio then gave Veloso a present, a brand new suitcase to carry all her new clothes to her new life.

Veloso was apprehended at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta on the 25^th of April 2010 with 2.6kg of heroin concealed in the lining of that very same suitcase that her kind godsister had given her before her departure from Kuala Lumpur. With an estmated street value of nearly half a million dollars she was detained, processed, convicted and was to spend the next five years awaiting execution. It has become abundantly clear as more and more details have come out about Mary Jane's case that she is nothing more than an innocent victim of crime.

Veloso's case, which has only had the publicity it has because of her celebrity jailmates, should be taken as an opportunity to really highlight the risks that foreign workers from third world countries face. It is well known in Asia that syndicates regularly recruit foreign helpers, with promises of huge amounts of money, to deliver drugs over borders. There are around 200 Philippine citizens currently on drugs charges in China. Recruiters target vulnerable, broke single mothers just like Mary Jane Veloso every day in places like Hong Kong. 

These people are seen as disposable, the residents of the cities and countries where they work don't care about them – nor do the authorities. They are regularly picked up as drug mules at airports around the region and their families do not have the resources to mount a defense. What is different about Mary Jane Veloso is that her entire story has now been verified as the recruiter – her godsister – has surrendered to authorities in the Philippines.

  After being charged with a number of offences by the Department of ForeignAffairs in the Philippines, Sergio gave herself up to authorities in the country amidst fears for her life.

The Philippine president successfully negotiated a stay of execution, at the absolute last minute, on the basis that she would need to return to the Philippines in order to testify against her recruiter. It remains to be seen if Mary Jane will be exonerated, incarcerated or eventually executed but it is clear that she had no intention of being a drug smuggler. Hopefully what comes out of this case is that the frightening regularity with which things like this happen takes its rightful place in the limelight.

Mary Jane found herself at the centre of a major international drug syndicate with its roots in West Africa. African criminals have become more and more active in Asia. Malaysia is particularly appealing as a destination as it is a hub of international education and student visas are very easy to obtain. In recent years the number of African criminals being apprehended in the country has skyrocketed, primarily for drug and fraud related offenses. 

As African countries become more prosperous increased migration to other parts of the world is inevitable. Certainly the majority of these migrants are hard working people of sound character but unfortunately there is a substantial undesirable element that is also coming with them. As these criminals find their way to Asia they are finding a whole new population of vulnerable people for them to prey on.

One of the reasons that Intra-Asia drug smuggling is so appealing is that you have large, poor countries very close to richer more developed countries. If we look at heroin prices alone, a gram of heroin purchased in Malaysia for 12 dollars could easily fetch four times that on the streets of Hong Kong (a 4 hour flight from Kuala Lumpur). Get that gram of heroin on to the streets of Sydney and it's going to fetch closer to $300.

One of the biggest incoming smuggling routes for heroin in Australia is via Indonesia. One look at a map shows why. The two countries share a sea border and the north coast of Australia is extremely close to southern Indonesia. This means that, within a very short space of time, $12 spent on the streets of Malaysia can become $300 in the hand in Sydney. Of course the Australians are well aware of this and the border is very tightly controlled, but no matter how many mules they catch, enough get through to make it worth the syndicate's while.

What happens now for Mary Jane?

As of the morning of April 29^th Mary Jane Veloso had been returned to Yogyakarta Prison, where she once again enters a holding pattern. She is in limbo, although the Philippine government has successfully negotiated a reprieve, it is temporary. She has been granted a stay of execution in order to be allowed to testify against those who wronged her and it is entirely possible that Indonesia will elect to execute her at a later date.

The strong diplomatic ties between Indonesia and the Philippines, along with their ethnic and cultural similarities may help her cause. Aquino is certainly in a far better position to negotiate on her behalf with the Indonesian authorities than his Australian counterpart. That said, Indonesia has publicly stated that it is fighting a losing war on drugs and it is determined to take a hard line, so whatever happens next will be interesting to watch.

Mary Jane's case is now about so much more than just Mary Jane Veloso. She is one of the most important people in South East Asia at the moment, important because she represents an opportunity for everyone involved in the case to stand up and start taking apart the apparatus that enabled her to be ensnared in the first place.

It is quite clear that she is a victim of crime, but she is not the only victim. The fact that she was spared while the two Australians who received so much publicity were shot has meant that the face of this single mother from Cabanatuan has been seen by millions of people around the world. What needs to happen now is that the whole story needs to be told, publicly and on the global stage. The story that starts with a naive teenager who married too young, had kids, was deserted by their father and forced onto the foreign worker treadmill. The story of the girl who would still be in Dubai if her employer had not tried to take sexual advantage of her and the story of a girl who was charged money by her godsister in order to become an unwitting drug courier.

The story of Mary Jane Veloso is not one that should end with her execution, it is one that should end with her as a symbol of all the things that are wrong in South East Asia. The things that those in richer parts of the world don't know, or don't care to know about. The poverty-stricken people who leave their families, loved ones and lives behind to go and be enslaved for a pittance overseas need a symbol, an advocate and someone to look up to.

In closing, let's take a look at some advice from Mary Jane in a letter she wrote on the eve of her death. A letter to the women of the Philippines, a letter that puts it better than anyone else possibly could. Her advice to the women who seek life abroad: “Stay at home with your families”.