Prisoner swap program eyed for detained OFWs

MANILA, Philippines — The minority leader in the House of Representatives yesterday proposed to the government a prisoner swap program with other countries, under which jailed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) can serve their sentences in the Philippines instead.

Rep. Marcelino Libanan cited the case of domestic helper Mary Jane Veloso, who was on death row in Indonesia for nearly 15 years following her conviction by a Jakarta court in 2010 for drug trafficking, and was repatriated in December 2024.

Veloso, who is from Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, has maintained her innocence, saying a recruiter, without her knowledge, had tricked her into carrying a suitcase with drugs.

Now 39 years old, she is currently confined at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong.

Libanan said the government can “establish a new international prisoner transfer program that would allow Filipinos convicted of offenses abroad to serve their prison terms in the Philippines.”

He also called on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Justice and Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) to work out the details of the new program, which he suggested could be modeled after a similar initiative in the United States.

“We need a program that will facilitate the transfer of Filipinos convicted of crimes and incarcerated in other countries, so that they can serve the remainder of their sentences here at home, closer to their families,” Libanan said.

“There’s no question that bringing Filipino offenders closer to their loved ones will be more conducive to their rehabilitation,” he added.

“In the US, their international prisoner transfer program is administered by their Department of Justice’s International Prisoner Transfer Unit, while their Department of State, which is equivalent to our DFA, is the chief negotiator of all prisoner transfer treaties,” Libanan explained.

A mother of two, Veloso was arrested in Yogyakarta in 2010 after she was found with 2.6 kilos of heroin concealed in her suitcase. She received a reprieve from execution in 2015 after an appeal to the Indonesian government by then president Benigno Aquino III.

According to a previous report by the DMW, a total of 1,254 Filipinos have been convicted of various offenses abroad and are currently locked up in countries across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.