Escaping the death sentence, the Philippines leaves Indonesia

“This is a new life for me and I will have a new beginning in the Philippines,” he added at the press conference, adding that he wanted to spend Christmas with his family.

“I have to go home, because I have a family there, my children are waiting for me.”

Although the agreement states that Veloso will be returned as a prisoner, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos may grant him a reprieve. She is now being held in the country’s main prison for women in Metro Manila.

Veloso was arrested in April 2010 at Yogyakarta airport.

She said one of the godfathers agreed to go to Indonesia to start work as a new servant by his daughter.

He claimed that the woman’s male friends gave her new clothes and a new bag, without knowing that it contained heroin.

He had to face the firing squad in 2015, however Benigno Aquino III, then president of the Philippines, granted her a last-minute reprieve after the woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and convicted of human trafficking. Veloso was named as a prosecution witness in the case.

His reprieve was so late that several newspapers in the Philippines went to print with front pages and headlines announcing that it had happened.