Mary Jane’s parents petition SC to allow her to give deposition

Parents of Mary Jane Veloso asked SC to allow their daughter to testify against her alleged recruiters. Photo by Tetch Torres-Tupas, Inquirer.net

The parents of condemned overseas Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso have petitioned the Supreme Court to allow her to give her sworn statement in the human trafficking case they had filed against her recruiters.

Veloso, a single parent of two young boys, was sentenced to death in Indonesia in October 2010 for smuggling 2.6 kilograms of heroin.

She has blamed her recruiters for tricking her into smuggling the illegal drugs.

Jakarta stayed her execution in 2016 after the Philippine government explained that Veloso needed to give her testimony in a human trafficking case.

Her alleged recruiters, Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, are being tried by the Regional Trial Court of Baloc in Santo Domingo, Nueva Ecija, for human trafficking, estafa and simple illegal recruitment.

Overrule the CA

On Monday, Veloso’s parents Cesar and Celia, represented by the National Union of People’s Lawyers, asked the Supreme Court to overrule the Court of Appeals and allow her to give a deposition from her prison cell.

The appellate court had twice reversed the Aug. 16, 2016 order of the Nueva Ecija court authorizing the Philippine Embassy to take Veloso’s sworn statements. —DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN