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Hope shines on jailed Filipina in Indonesia with SC now allowing deposition

Philippines | National

Hope shines on jailed Filipina in Indonesia with SC now allowing deposition

By Jeffrey Damicog

The lawyers of convicted drug courier Mary Jane Veloso expressed relief with the Supreme Court (SC) allowing their client to talk via deposition.

(AFP / MANILA BULLETIN / FILE PHOTO)

The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), legal counsel of Veloso and her family, said it received last Friday the Supreme Court (SC) resolution which affirmed with finality the order of Judge Anarica Castillo-Reyes of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 88 of Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija to get the deposition of the Filipina who is now on death row in Indonesia for drug smuggling.

It was Veloso's recruiters, Ma. Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, who sought to stop the RTC order by filing a motion for reconsideration.

“The SC Resolution denied the Motion for Reconsideration with finality and warned no further pleadings and other papers on this issue will be entertained,” the NUPL said.

“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,” it explained.

The RTC will use the deposition in trying Veloso’s alleged illegal recruiters.

“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.

“It is a long and tortuous journey but we will get there,” the NUPL added.

Veloso was arrested at the Yogyakarta Airport in Indonesia in 2010 with 2.6 kilos of heroin.

She was sentenced to death but has received reprieve in 2015 after then President Benigno Aquino III appealed her case to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

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