CA junks Mary Jane Veloso’s appeal to testify vs recruiters

The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed its earlier ruling barring the taking of the testimony of Mary Jane Veloso — a Filipina death row inmate in Indonesia — in the illegal recruitment and trafficking charges filed against her recruiters in Nueva Ecija.

On June 5, the appellate court denied Veloso's motion for reconsideration on its earlier ruling preventing a Nueva Ecija judge from observing the deposition of Veloso, a convicted drug mule, from her prison in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

A Dec. 13, 2017 decision from the CA reversed the ruling of Judge Anarica Castillo-Reyes of the Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court's Branch 88 that allowed Veloso to testify against Maria Cristina Sergio and her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao.

In an eight-page resolution, the CA said that in its jurisdiction, in criminal cases, "there is no law or rules which expressly allows the taking of deposition upon written interrogatories."

"By insisting that we should reconsider our decision dated 13 December 2017 and allow the taking of the testimony of Mary Jane Veloso by deposition upon written interrogatories in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in effect, the OSG (Office of the Solicitor General) would want us to disregard Section 14 (2), Article III of the Constitution," the CA said through Associate Justice Ramon Bato, Jr.

Section 14 (2), Article III states, among others, that the accused enjoys the right of meeting witnesses face to face, and to have compulsory process to secure the attendance of witnesses and production of evidence in his or her behalf.

Nitpicking, legalistic approach

In response to the CA's final ruling, the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers said it would intervene in the case and elevate the matter to the Supreme Court.

"It is regrettable that our own courts are constrained or unable to adapt or be responsive to unique situations such as the peculiar circumstances of the case in order to satisfy the more compelling interests of justice," said the group in a statement posted on its Facebook account.

The NUPL lamented how "a nitpicking purely legalistic approach devoid of any social context or divorced from concrete reality serves" was preventing Veloso from taking her "only allowable legal mode" to prove her innocence.

Veloso was granted a reprieve from execution by firing squad in 2015, after then-president Benigno Aquino III appealed to the Indonesian government to turn her into a witness. — MDM, GMA News