Supreme Court allows Mary Jane Veloso to testify vs. recruiters

The Supreme Court (SC) has allowed Filipina death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso to testify against her alleged recruiters through deposition in Indonesia.

The SC's Third Division granted the petition challenging the Court of Appeals decision that reversed the Nueva Ecija regional trial court's (RTC) resolution allowing Veloso, a convicted drug mule, to testify through deposition by written interrogatories.

"Thus, the Court reinstated and affirmed with modification the ruling of the RTC and ordered that the deposition of Mary Jane be taken before the Philippine Consular Office and officials in Indonesia pursuant to the Rules of Court and principles of jurisdiction," the SC Public Information Office said in a statement Friday.

The division reached the decision on October 9, Wednesday, just weeks before the prosecution's last chance to present witnesses against Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, who face charges for human trafficking, illegal recruitment and estafa.

The trial court had scheduled the last hearing for the prosecution's presentation of evidence for October 28.

"To disallow the written interrogatories will curtail Mary Jane’s right to due process," the SC PIO quoted the SC as ruling.

The trial court scheduled the last hearing for the prosecution's presentation of evidence for October 28.

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.

She was spared from execution in 2015, after Sergio, her alleged recruiter, surrendered to authorities. Then-President Benigno Aquino III had proposed to the Indonesian government that Veloso be turned into a witness.

'Unusual circumstances'

The case for the taking of Veloso's testimony hurdled the Nueva Ecija RTC in 2017, with the judge even ruling to personally observe the deposition.

Sergio and Lacanilao appealed this before the CA, which reversed the trial court later that year on the ground of the right of the accused to meet witnesses face to face.

But seeing "unusual circumstances" in Veloso's plight, the SC "suppletorily" applied Rule 23 of the Rules on Civil Procedure, which sets the guidelines for depositions pending action.

The High Court said Section 15 of Rule 119 of the Revised Rules of Court — which the CA used in overturning the RTC's decision — is inapplicable in this case.

Section 15 allows the conditional examination of a prosecution witness if they are "too sick or infirm to appear at the trial" or has to leave the Philippines with no definite date of return.

However, Veloso "cannot even take a single step out of the prison facility of her own volition without facing severe consequence," the SC said, adding that the conditions of her imprisonment "denied her of any opportunity to decide for herself" to testify before the Nueva Ecija court.

The SC held that the CA "strictly" applied Section 15, Rule 119 "without taking into consideration the concomitant right of due process of Mary Jane and the State as well as the prejudice that will be caused to Mary Jane or the People with its pronouncement."

The High Court also referred to its committee on the revision of the Rules of Court the Office of the Solicitor General's recommendation for the promulgation of rules on future transnational cases in which a "vital" prosecution witness is unavailable for reasons other than those in the existing rule.

Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando penned the ruling, a copy of which was not immediately made available. —KBK/RSJ, GMA News