[Inside the Newsroom] Rappler was built for stories like Mary Jane Veloso’s - Rappler

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We have variations of this reminder to the team: “Follow through.” “Don’t drop the ball.” “Own the story.” “This story is ours.” 

They all mean: Our work will only make a difference if we don’t treat stories as one-offs that we abandon once a new viral obsession grips the country. 

And at Rappler, by stories we also mean the campaigns and engagement we do with partner organizations and local communities. 

They can also mean the cause of an individual that has become larger than herself.

Such was the case with Mary Jane Veloso, the poor single mother from Nueva Ecija who, on Thursday, September 24, was pardoned by President Bongbong Marcos. 

That was 11 years after Rappler, through our civic engagement arm MovePH, threw its full support behind the Change.org petition started by the Promotion of Church People’s Response and the network of Church Task Force to Save the Life of Mary Jane Veloso. 

Mary Jane, tricked into smuggling drugs into Indonesia in 2010, was set for execution in the Wirogunan prison in April 2015. With a few days left for Philippine officials to convince Indonesian counterparts to stay the execution, MovePH “published the [PCR] call and put click buttons under all related Rappler articles.” As a result, “a global conversation was sparked. It pushed the petition to the top 10 of the most signed petitions globally over that weekend.”

The execution was deferred. Mary Jane stayed behind bars in Indonesia for a decade more, repatriated to Manila in 2025 — but straight to the correctional for women. With the presidential pardon, she walks free. 

In those years of waiting, Rappler did its part not to forget Mary Jane in prison, her family beyond the rice fields of Cabanatuan, and her volunteer lawyers who had made her case the fight of their lives. I share below the milestone contents we have done in the last decade. 

We would do this again. And I hope you can support our work to make that possible.

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