Panel created to study remedies in Veloso case
THE DEPARTMENT of Justice (DoJ) has convened a task force that would study possible legal remedies in the case of Mary Jane F. Veloso, the Filipina who got a reprieve from her death sentence in Indonesia for drug-related charges, as well as prosecute her recruiters.
The panel, composed of state prosecutors, investigators and legal staff which would examine Indonesian law, would be led by Undersecretary Jose Vicente B. Salazar, Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima said in a press briefing hours after Veloso’s scheduled execution was deferred indefinitely.
Veloso’s fate remains uncertain, as the Philippine government pursued the “best tack” of targeting a temporary reprieve to enable her recruiter’s prosecution, Ms. de Lima said.
The government invoked the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) in a letter to her Indonesian counterparts, Attorney- General H.M. Prasetyo and Minister of Justice and Human Rights Amir Syamsuddin, Ms. de Lima said.
“We invoked that so we can get information and testimony from Mary Jane herself,” she explained in Filipino. “We just asked for now for a temporary reprieve to pursue the case [against her recruiters] that is now with the NPS ( National Prosecution Service) for preliminary investigation.”
MLAT was the regional treaty that laid down the terms on how to access her and make her available for the purpose of preliminary investigation and the eventual trial of the case against her recruiters, she said.
It would also enable cooperation with Malaysian authorities to track down the man of “African descent” whom Veloso accused of giving her the drug-containing luggage there before embarking for Indonesia.
Underscoring the need for Veloso’s participation, Ms. de Lima noted the Filipina convict is the complainant in the case filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) before the DoJ recently.
The DoJ-attached agency had filed a complaint for illegal recruitment, swindling and human trafficking against her Filipino recruiters — common-law partners Maria Kristina P. Sergio and Julius Lacanilao — and an African in Malaysia only known as Ike.
Ms. de Lima recounted a conversation with President Benigno S. C. Aquino III, who asked for legal guidance and inquired what would happen to the case if the execution pushed through.
“Sir, that case would no longer move,” Ms. de Lima told him in Filipino.
Even as she disclosed that two witnesses have since surfaced against Ms. Sergio, these involved separate cases.
For now, the government would have to work out how to make use of Veloso as a witness against her recruiters. For one, the department is considering whether the prosecutor would need to go to Yogyakarta so Ve- loso could personally subscribe and swear on her affidavit.
Meanwhile, Ms. Sergio was transferred to the NBI’s custodial facility. Preliminary investigation into the case is set on May 8 and 14.
Ms. de Lima said there was no deadline as to when the reprieve would expire, which meant the execution of Veloso, a single mother of two, would be stayed until further notice.