After a decade, Veloso will now be able to narrate her ordeal in full.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The Supreme Court upheld its previous decision, allowing Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino migrant worker on death row in Indonesia, to testify against her recruiters through written answers to questions under oath.
The SC Third Division, in a resolution dated March 4, denied with finality the motion for consideration filed by Veloso’s recruiters. The high court also “warned that no further pleadings, motions, letters or other communications shall be entertained in this case.”
“The issues raised therein having been duly considered and passed upon by the court in aforesaid decision and no substantial argument having been adduced to warrant its reconsideration,” the resolution read.
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), Veloso’s private prosecutors said they are pleased with the SC’s decision as it “removed the final legal stumbling block for the taking of her deposition.”
Last year, the Public Attorney’s Office, the counsel of her recruiters, filed a motion for reconsideration after the SC allowed Veloso to testify against her recruiters through written deposition.
Read: SC allows Mary Jane Veloso to testify against recruiters
In effect, this means that the Nueva Ecija trial court hearing the qualified human trafficking, illegal recruitment and estafa against her illegal recruiters Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacalinao can now schedule the dates for the taking of Mary Jane’s testimony, the NUPL said.
After a decade, Veloso will now be able to narrate her ordeal in full.
Veloso was arrested in 2010 Indonesia after authorities allegedly found 2.6 kilos of heroin in her luggage, lent to her by her recruiters. In 2015, she was sentenced to die by firing squad and was granted reprieve last minute due to the strong support from different groups here and abroad.
“In time, not only will the illegal recruiters be held to account but her innocence will eventually be judicially established and we look forward to her coming home free as a logical consequence,” the NUPL said.
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