It’s a little past two o’clock in the morning and yet everyone was still awake. On the street fronting the Indonesian embassy in Manila, most of the activists and supporters of Filipina human trafficking victim Mary Jane Veloso laid on the ground half-hoping and half-dreading the announcement regarding the execution. They held a vigil for Mary Jane, on death row in Indonesia, scheduled to be put on firing squad in Nusa Kambangan, Indonesia’s prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, at approximately 12 midnight Indonesia time, which is around one o’clock AM Philippine time on the 29th of April. As legal and diplomatic options have been exhausted, the power of the people’s united action is the only thing left to stop Mary Jane’s execution.
Who is Mary Jane?
Mary Jane Veloso was born to a poor family in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. Her father used to be a farm worker at the Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac and did a dozen of other odd jobs – including picking garbage and selling recyclable items from trash – to make ends meet. Because of poverty, Mary Jane was unable to finish school. She had to help her parents earn a living. Eventually, as a single mother of two sons aged 6 and 12 – she had to find work abroad to feed her children as jobs were scarce in the Philippines. She worked as a domestic helper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for a time but was nearly raped by her employer so she decided to work elsewhere.
That’s when she decided to fly to Indonesia because a family friend had promised her a job as a maid. Unfortunately,
