THE Court of Appeals has barred death convict Mary Jane Veloso from testifying in the criminal cases against her recruiters from her detention cell in Indonesia.
In a three-page resolution, the CA’s 11th Division through Associate Justice Ramon Bato Jr. issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court, Branch 88, from facilitating the taking of Veloso’s deposition or affidavit on April 27.
The appellate court granted the immediate relief sought in the petition filed by Veloso’s detained recruiters, couple Ma. Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, who are facing qualified human trafficking before the RTC.
The TRO specifically directed RTC Judge Anarica Castillo-Reyes and the government “to cease and desist from implementing the assailed resolutions during the effectivity thereof and until further orders from this Court.”
The order was effective for 60 days from issuance last March 24.
The CA noted that the TRO was necessary “in order to maintain the status quo ante as well as preserve the rights of the parties during the pendency of the instant petition and not to render ineffectual whatever judgment that may be rendered by this Court.”
Associate Justices Manuel Barrios and Renato Francisco concurred with the ruling.
Veloso’s volunteer lawyer Edre Olalia of the National Union of People’s Lawyers lamented the development, saying the deposition is already long overdue.
“A victim of injustice several times over, distressed migrant workers like Mary Jane expect from her compatriots not only to uphold fairness, reason and justice but also to demonstrate empathy and conscience at the very least,” he said in a statement.
Olalia vowed to exhaust all legal remedies to be able to proceed with the taking of Veloso’s testimony.
Prosecutors wanted to take Veloso’s testimony to bolster the cases against her recruiters, which the government has pursued to save her from death row in Indonesia where she was convicted of drug trafficking.
In its ruling in August last year, the RTC allowed the taking of Veloso’s deposition from the Indonesian jail by the Philippine consulate in the presence of the judge.
The recruiters argued in their petition before the CA that the deposition would violate Section 14(2), Article III of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, which requires that they confront Veloso face-to-face.
Sergio and Lacanilao said the previous administration was only constrained to file cases against them in convincing Indonesian authorities to stall Veloso’s execution.
The two also reiterated their denial of the allegation that they were part of an international drug syndicate that preyed on Veloso, claiming that they were arrested and prosecuted “in order to give a public impression, particularly to Indonesia, the fact that the accused were under arrest.”
In her affidavit, which she needs to personally subscribe before the court, Veloso said she was duped by Sergio and Lacanilao into bringing the drug-laden luggage to Indonesia in 2010 where she was arrested upon her arrival at the Yogyakarta airport.
The death sentence on Veloso was temporarily postponed last April 29, 2015 after then President Benigno Aquino III appealed her case to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.