Bid to get deposition of Veloso fails

The Court of Appeals has temporarily barred state prosecutors and a Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge from flying to Indonesia to get the deposition of convicted drug mule Mary Jane Veloso in connection with the criminal cases brought against her alleged recruiters.

Veloso has been sentenced to death after she was caught with 2.2 kilograms of heroin at an airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2010.

Her execution has been put on hold after her family, human rights advocates and the previous Aquino administration asked the Indonesian government to allow her to participate in the trial of her alleged recruiters, Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao.

In a three-page resolution, the appellate court’s 11th Division granted a 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) based on a petition filed by Sergio and Lacanilao, who were represented by lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO).

In granting the suspects’ petition, the court noted the arguments they raised in questioning the separate resolutions issued by Presiding Judge Anarica Castillo-Reyes of Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija RTC Branch 88 on Aug. 16, 2016, and Nov. 3, 2016.

The two rulings allowed government prosecutors to visit Veloso on April 27 in her detention cell in Wirongunan Penitentiary in Yogyakarta to obtain her deposition, or a written testimony of a witness acquired outside the court during trial.

Reyes had also asked the Supreme Court to let her travel with the state prosecutors to personally witness them taking Veloso’s deposition.

“(I)n order to maintain the status quo ante as well as preserve the rights of the parties during the pendency of the instant petition… let a (TRO) be issued effective for 60 days… unless sooner lifted,” the court said in its March 24 ruling, a copy of which was made public on Monday.

The appeals court directed Reyes to “cease and desist from implementing the assailed resolutions… until further orders from this court.”

Sergio and Lacanilao, who are detained at the Nueva Ecija Provincial Jail, are standing trial for human trafficking after they allegedly enticed Veloso for a nonexistent job and made her a drug courier without her knowledge.

The PAO lawyers opposed Reyes’ orders, saying it violated the constitutional rights of Sergio and Lacanilao to face the witness against them.

The government lawyers also insisted that the high court had previously ruled that a written deposition of a witness was only allowed in civil cases and not in trials of criminal offenses.

Edre Olalia, the lawyer of Veloso’s family and president of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, expressed his “utter disappointment and unfathomable frustration” with the decision of the appellate court.

“We shall not stop exhausting all fair legal means in combination with decisive political action to ensure that (Veloso) is allowed to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Olalia said in a statement.

“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 added.