‘Recruiters’ confession big dev’t for Veloso case’
Missing victim
It noted how one of the known victims, a certain Rosalie Pascual, “has just been illegally deployed abroad” by Sergio and Lacanilao.
The resolution noted that “Pascual’s whereabouts are unknown, and her relatives do not have any way to contact her.”
Named as complainants in the case filed in the Nueva Ecija RTC were Veloso’s father, Cesar, her mother, Celia, and sister, Maritess Laurente, and Cabanatuan City and Talavera town residents Lorna Mitch Valino, Ana Marie Gonzales, Eldridge Posadas, Daisy de Luna, Pascual, Teresita Candelaria, Meryliza Barrientos, Jenalyn Paraiso, Patricia Reyes and Flora May Ladrillano.
Claiming they had received death threats, Sergio and Lacanilao turned themselves in to Nueva Ecija police on April 28 and asked for protective custody.
They were taken to PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, and were given police protection. They were arrested on Tuesday and put through inquest after Veloso’s parents identified them as their daughter’s recruiters.
Areza said Sergio and Lacanilao were illegally arrested, as the order to arrest them was based on affidavits submitted by complainants who were not present to identify them.
Not indigents
It was Celia Veloso who identified Sergio and Lacanilao before they were arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation.
During Friday’s hearing at the DOJ, the Velosos calmly sat across the orange-clad Sergio and Lacanilao.
The Velosos’ lawyer, Edre Olalia, questioned the PAO’s representation of Sergio and Lacanilao, saying they could hardly be considered indigents.
PAO lawyers are chiefly mandated to represent poor litigants.
“They have the right to a lawyer. But my point is, how would you consider someone proven to have been going in and out of the country three, four, five times a month indigent,” Olalia told reporters.
Olalia raised the matter during the hearing, prompting Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Azarcon to order the PAO lawyers to file their justification in writing during the second hearing, scheduled for May 20.
Azarcon also ordered the NBI to submit all other evidence it intended to bring against Sergio and Lacanilao by Monday, and the couple to hand in their counteraffidavits by May 20.
Gov’t assistance
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said on Friday the government was talking with Veloso’s family to determine how it could help the members with livelihood.
Soliman said the government was also talking to Veloso’s estranged husband, Michael Candelaria, about livelihood.
She said Veloso’s two children, Mark Daniel, 12, and Mark Darren, 6, had been beneficiaries of the government’s handout program Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino since 2012.
The children, she said, are registered in the name of Candelaria’s mother, who is taking care of them.
“[T]heir surname is Candelaria and they are covered by the program since 2012 and that [will continue],” Soliman said.
She said Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario was also extending “personal help” to Veloso’s children.
Government help will continue “until the children finish college,” Soliman said. With reports from Anselmo Roque and Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon
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