SC allows Veloso to testify against recruiters via deposition
The Supreme Court (SC) has allowed detained overseas Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso to testify against her alleged illegal recruiters through a deposition inside her detention cell in Indonesia where she is facing death sentence for illegal drugs trafficking.
To disallow the taking of the testimony of Veloso by way of deposition through written interrogatories will curtail her right to due process, the SC said in a decision written by Associate Justice Ramon Paul L. Hernando.
A deposition "is a written testimony made under oath by a witness who is unable to testify in person concerning facts known to him….”
The SC’s decision reversed the ruling of the Court of Appeals (CA) and reinstated the order issued by the Nueva Ecija regional trial court (RTC) in 2016.
A summary of the decision given by the SC’s public information office (PIO), in lieu of a copy of the document, stated:
“The Court held that the RTC did not gravely abuse its discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction when it granted the taking of testimony of Mary Jane by way of deposition through written interrogatories in light of the conditions of Mary Jane’s reprieve and her imprisonment in Indonesia.
“It further held that there are compelling reasons to liberally construe the procedural rules and apply suppletorily the Rules on Civil Procedure.”
Veloso was arrested upon her arrival at the Yogyakarta airport in Indonesia for bringing a drug-laden luggage in 2010. She was sentenced to death by firing squad.
The death sentence was temporarily put on hold on April 29, 2015 after then President Benigno Aquino III appealed her case to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Veloso’s alleged illegal recruiters Ma. Cristina Serio and Julius Lacanilao were charged with human trafficking before RTC Judge Anarica J. CastilloReyes in Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija. They have been detained since then.
On motion by the prosecution, Judge Reyes ordered the Philippine Consulate in Indonesia to secure Veloso’s deposition from her cell in Wirongan Penitentiary.
When the trial court denied Sergio and Lacanilao’s plea to reconsider the judge’s order, they elevated the issue before the CA.
Granting Sergio and Lacanilao’s petition, the CA ruled:
“We are not unmindful of the gravity of the offenses charged against the petitioners (Ma. Cristina P. Sergio and Julius L. Lacanilao, the alleged illegal recruiters). Likewise, We are not oblivious of the sad and unfortunate fate that befell Mary Jane.
“However, the circumstances in this case call for the application of Rule 119 which categorically states that the conditional examination of a prosecution witness shall be made before the court where the case is pending in light of the constitutionally enshrined right of the petitioners to meet the witnesses face to face or the right of confrontation and cross examination.”
In a petition filed for her by the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), Veloso sought the reversal of a CA’s decision against her deposition in Indonesia.
The SC petition stated:
“To bar Mary Jane from testifying will prevent the prosecution from fully presenting their case by means of crucial material evidence, thereby denying the victim of her opportunity to finally be heard. This strikes at the very core of the due process guarantee of the Constitution and puts premium on technicality at the expense of the right of the State to prosecute criminal wrongdoing.”
The SC granted the petition.