BALANGA CITY, Bataan — The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Ecumenical Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People (CBCP–ECMI) on Tuesday reacted negatively on the recent decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) on the case of Mary Jane Veloso.
The CA, in its ruling last December, prevented a Regional Trial Court judge from Nueva Ecija from getting Veloso’s deposition at her detention cell in Indonesia against alleged drug traffickers Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao.
A deposition is a witness’s testimony taken outside court.
“The ruling is just an added pain and continuous agony for Mary Jane who is the unwilling victim used and duped by Sergio and Lacanilao,” CBCP–ECMI chair Bishop Ruperto Santos told the PNA in an interview.
The Bataan prelate said Veloso was the one who must be protected and saved but that the appellate court seemed to be giving her human traffickers the leeway.
“How can Mary Jane defend herself and prove her innocence when the CA prevented her from testifying against those who victimized her?” Santos said.
The 18-page decision of the CA granted the petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by the lawyers of Sergio and Lacanilao, Veloso’s alleged recruiters.
It also reversed and set aside the decision of the Nueva Ecija RTC Branch 88 that allowed Judge Anarica Castillo-Reyes to observe Veloso’s deposition in Indonesia. Earlier, Reyes’ sala allowed the Philippine consulate in Indonesia to take Veloso’s testimony through deposition in Wirongunan Penitentiary, where she is detained.
Veloso, a mother of two from Cabanatuan City, was arrested and sentenced to death allegedly for smuggling heroin into Indonesia in April 2010.
But after then President Benigno Aquino III made an appeal for her life and her alleged recruiters surrendered in the Philippines, she was granted a last-minute reprieve before her execution scheduled on April 29, 2015.
“Let her speak the truth and free Mary Jane,” Santos said. (PNA)
