MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) has allowed incarcerated overseas Filipina worker Mary Jane Veloso to testify against her alleged illegal recruiters from her detention in Indonesia.
In a verdict by the high court on Friday, Veloso could give her testimony before the Philippine Consular Office and Indonesian officials in a bid to convict alleged recruiters Ma. Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao for human trafficking.
“The Supreme Court has allowed the taking of the testimony of convicted drug trafficker Mary Jane Veloso against her recruiters by way of deposition in Indonesia,” said the SC’s Public Information Office (PIO).
The SC’s verdict was a reversal of an earlier decision by the Court of Appeals, which rejected the appeal of the convicted Filipina worker to let her testify against her alleged illegal recruiters.
“The Court said that to disallow the written interrogatories will curtail Mary Jane’s right to due process,” said the SC. “Her imprisonment in Indonesia and the conditions attached to her reprieve denied her of any opportunity to decide for herself to voluntarily appear and testify before the trial court in Nueva Ecija where the cases of the respondents of illegal recruitment were pending.”
Meanwhile, overseas Filipino workers group Migrante said that the decision to allow Veloso’s written testimony would be a precedent to future cases.
“It shall also serve as a precedent for overseas Filipinos who may in troublesome circumstances later find themselves victims of human trafficking and illegal recruitment,” Migrante said in a statement.
Veloso was sentenced to execution by firing squad after she was convicted of drug trafficking for being caught with 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her luggage at Yogyakarta airport in 2010.
The Filipina said she was tricked by her recruiters into smuggling illegal drugs into Indonesia.
Veloso was supposed to have been executed on April 29, 2015, but it was postponed to allow her to testify against her alleged illegal recruiters in the Philippines.
She was again spared late 2015 as the Indonesia’s Attorney General Office decided to forego a third round of executions due to its economic slowdown./PN
