The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) on Friday disclosed that it is to file a Memorandum at the Court of Appeals in defense of resolutions of the trial court hearing overseas worker Mary Jane Veloso’s qualified human trafficking case that allowed her deposition to be taken at Wirongunan Penitentiary in Indonesia.
That penitentiary in Indonesia is where Mary Jane is incarcerated and languishing in death row on a drug trafficking charge.
Her illegal recruiters, Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, earlier contested before the Court of Appeals the resolutions of RTC Branch 88 of Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija, saying that the deposition will violate their constitutional right to confront witnesses against them.
Mary Jane narrowly escaped death two years ago because the Indonesian government graciously gave her the chance to testify against those who wronged her.
Mary Jane’s family and counsel from the NUPL will not let this chance be absurdly squandered because of an apparent clash of rights and mere technicalities in legal rules.
According to NUPL, contrary to their claims, however, Sergio and Lacanilao will not suffer the imagined evil that such constitutional right verily seeks to prevent because they will be given a meaningful and reasonable opportunity to participate in the deposition-taking, which will also be attended by the presiding judge.
“Without the proceeding, moreover, all relevant and material facts from the key witness who perceived and suffered from the crime will be suppressed, debilitating the court from rendering complete justice,” NUPL said in a statement.
Mary Jane almost paid with her life for a crime she did not commit because she was unable to adequately and fully defend herself before the Indonesian courts that she has nothing to do with the drugs intercepted at the airport inside her luggage.
