The Supreme Court has allowed the taking of the testimony of convicted drug trafficker Mary Jane Veloso against her recruiters by way of a deposition in Indonesia.
Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando granted the Justice department’s petition seeking to reverse and set aside the Dec. 13, 2017 decision of the Court of Appeals that overturned the Aug. 16, 2016 Resolution of the Santo Domingo, Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court, Branch 88, that granted the motion of the prosecution to take the deposition by Veloso in Indonesia.
Instead, the high court reinstated and affirmed with modification the ruling of the RTC and ordered that the deposition of Mary Jane be taken before the Philippine Consular Office and officials in Indonesia pursuant to the Rules of Court and principles of jurisdiction.
The high court also referred to its Committee on Revision of the Rules for its appropriate action the recommendation by the Office of the Solicitor General for the Court to promulgate a set of rules for the guidance of the Bench and the Bar in transnational cases, where a prosecution’s vital witness in a criminal proceeding is unavailable for reasons other than those listed in Section 15, Rule 119 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure relative to the enforcement of the accused’s constitutional right to confront witnesses face-to-face.
According to the tribunal, to disallow the written interrogatories will curtail Mary Jane’s right to due process.
The high court ruled that the RTC did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it granted the taking of the testimony of Mary Jane by way of deposition through the written interrogatories in light of the conditions of Mary Jane’s reprieve and her imprisonment in Indonesia.
In ruling against the alleged recruiters of Mary Jane, the Court found a reversible error in the appellate court’s decision when the appellate court gave due course to the petition for certiorari of respondents Maria Cristina P. Sergio and Julius L. Lacanilao, considering that the errors ascribed there were mere errors of judgment, which do not lie in a certiorari proceeding.
The appellate court held that, contrary to the RTC’s findings, the conditional examination of witnesses in criminal proceedings were primarily governed by Rule 119 of the Rules on Criminal Procedure.
But the high tribunal held that Section 15, Rule 119 of the Rules of Court was inapplicable in the Mary Jane’s case. Section 15 of Rule 119, which provides the examination of witnesses for the prosecution, says that “when it satisfactorily appears that a witness for the prosecution is too sick or infirm to appear at the trial as directed by the court, or has to leave the Philippines with no definite date of returning, he may forthwith be conditionally examined before the court where the case is pending.”
The high court said such was not the case of Mary Jane, noting that she could not even take a single step out of the prison facility without facing severe consequences. Her imprisonment in Indonesia and the conditions attached to her reprieve denied her of any opportunity to decide for herself to voluntarily appear and testify before the trial court in Nueva Ecija, where the cases of the respondents of illegal recruitment were pending.
It held that the appellate court, in denying the State’s motion for deposition, appeared to have strictly and rigidly applied and interpreted Section 15, Rule 119 without taking into consideration the concomitant right to due process of Mary Jane and the State, as well as the prejudice that would be caused to Mary Jane or the prosecution with its pronouncement.
The tribunal also ruled that in light of the unusual circumstances surrounding Mary Jane’s case, it saw no reason not to apply the provisions of Rule 23 of the Rules on Civil Procedure in the interest of substantial justice and fairness.
Court records showed that Mary Jane, who was neighbors with respondents Cristina and Julius in Talavera, Nueva Ecija, claimed that she was offered by the latter a job as domestic helper in Malaysia.
Upon arrival in Malaysia, Mary Jane, however, was informed by Cristina that the job intended for her was no longer available.
She was eventually sent to Indonesia by Cristina who provided her with the plane ticket as well as a luggage for a seven-day holiday with a promise that she would have a job upon her return to Malaysia.
Upon her arrival at the Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Mary Jane was arrested by police officers for allegedly carrying 2.5 kilograms of heroin inside her luggage. She was charged with drug trafficking before the District Court of Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, which later sentenced her to death by firing squad.
