The parents of convicted drug mule Mary Jane Veloso has asked the Supreme Court to allow her to testify in the criminal cases against her recruiters from her detention cell in Indonesia through a deposition.
In a 38-page petition, the petitioners through National Union of People’s Lawyers led by Edre Olalia, Cesar and Celia Veloso pleaded the SC to reverse and set aside the decision of the Court of Appeals that prevented the taking of their daughter’s deposition or affidavit.
Instead, the petitioners sought the reinstatement of the earlier ruling of Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court, Branch 88, that allowed the deposition for the trial of Veloso’s detained recruiters, couple Ma. Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, who are facing qualified human trafficking before the RTC.
The parents argued that the CA’s former 11th Division erred in issuing the permanent injunction order against the taking of Mary Jane’s testimony by deposition.
“Clearly, Respondents Sergio and Lacanilao failed to show grave abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court which issued the subject Resolutions. Hence, there is no basis—legal and factual—for the Court of Appeals to act on their Petition and grant the reliefs prayed for therein,” the petition stated.
The parents of Mary Jane also accused the CA of grave abuse of discretion in “depriving Mary Jane’s right to fair trial” and issuing the assailed order that they said “practically muzzled her from telling the truth.”
“To bar Mary Jane from testifying will prevent the prosecution from fully representing their case by means of crucial material evidence, thereby denying the victim of her opportunity to finally be heard. This strikes at the very core of the due process guarantee of the Constitution and puts a premium on technicality at the expense of the right of the State to prosecute criminal wrongdoing” they said. Rey E. Requejo
Lastly, petitioners contested the findings of the CA that the deposition of Mary Jane would violate the constitutional right of the two accused to face their accuser under Section 14 (2), Article III of the 1987 Constitution.
“In this instant case, Mary Jane is a material, if not, the most important prosecution witness whose testimony is indispensable to the resolution of the case at hand,” they insisted.
The parents of Mary Jane filed the petition as an intervention to the earlier petition filed by government prosecutors through the office of the solicitor general, which also assailed the CA ruling last June.
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 resolution in August 2016, the RTC allowed the taking of Veloso’s deposition from the Indonesian jail by the Philippine consulate in the presence of the judge and set the proceedings in April last year.
However, the appellate court reversed the RTC and sided with the recruiters who invoked their constitutional right to confront their accuser face-to-face in trial.
Sergio and Lacanilao, who are represented by Public Attorney’s Office chief Persida Rueda – Acosta in this case, said the previous administration was only constrained to file cases against them in convincing Indonesian authorities to stall Veloso’s execution.
The two have vehemently denied 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, Mary Jane 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 put on hold last April 29, 2015 after then President Aquino appealed her case to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.