‘Recruiters’ confession big dev’t for Veloso case’

By: Kristine Felisse Mangunay and Tarra Quismundo - 10 years ago

Maria Kristina Sergio, the alleged recruiter of convicted Filipino drug trafficker Mary Jane Veloso. AP FILE PHOTO

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Friday said the admission of Mary Jane Veloso’s recruiters that they worked for an international drug ring provided hope for the grant of clemency to the maid now sitting on death row in Indonesia.

De Lima said she had yet to see the Philippine National Police report that supposedly contained the confession of Maria Kristina Sergio and her live-in partner, Julius Lacanilao, but she called the report a “big development,” as it established that the drug syndicate existed.

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) on Friday denied that Sergio and Lacanilao had admitted to working for the drug syndicate and said it would challenge the resolution of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The DOJ filed charges of illegal recruitment in the Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court yesterday against Sergio and Lacanilao based on its resolution that found probable cause to put them on trial following inquest proceedings on Tuesday.

Veloso’s family has brought separate charges of human trafficking and fraud against Sergio and Lacanilao in the DOJ.

Trafficking victim

The confession of Sergio and Lacanilao that they worked for the drug ring would validate Veloso’s defense in Indonesia that she was a victim of an international drug syndicate.

De Lima told reporters that if Veloso’s defense is validated then “there’s a big chance” of talks with Indonesian authorities for a grant of clemency to the maid, who was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death by firing squad in 2010.

Veloso was about to be shot on the Indonesian island prison of Nusakambangan early on April 29 when President Joko Widodo stayed her execution after the Philippine government offered to make her a witness against the drug syndicate in the prosecution of Sergio and Lacanilao.

No confession

Howard Areza, the lead lawyer from the PAO representing Sergio and Lacanilao, denied that the couple admitted to working for the drug syndicate.

“There is no confession. If there was, why don’t they show the signed statement? I don’t know where they got that, and I don’t know why they included that in their resolution,” Areza told reporters at the DOJ after the first hearing on the charges brought by the family of Veloso.

“I don’t know where they got their facts. So actually, we are studying our legal options. I hope the public will listen to us in our appeal. Don’t be too quick to judge. We still don’t know the whole story,” Areza said.

In the resolution, the DOJ Task Force on Anti-Trafficking in Persons cited “information from both respondents themselves relating to their complicity and/or participation with an international drug syndicate,” which led to Veloso’s arrest in Indonesia after authorities at Yogyakarta airport found 2.6 kilos of heroin in her suitcase.

The resolution cited the modus operandi and details on Sergio’s and Lacanilao’s foreign contacts.

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