Veloso’s family harassed, to be under witness protection, solons told
THE family of Mary Jane Veloso will soon be placed under witness protection program (WPP) after unidentified men supposedly harassed the family, lawmakers hearing her plight were told Wednesday.
During the hearing of the House of Representatives dangerous drugs committee, Director Virgilio Mendez of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said Veloso’s husband Michael Candelaria and children Mark Daniel, 12, and Mark Darren, 6, will be turned over to the NBI Wednesday and would be placed under its protection.
“We learned that the husband of Mary Jane and two kids are already in the custody of Migrante. It was relayed to us that they would be turned over to the NBI and they would be covered by the WPP just to ensure their safety,” Mendez said.
De Lima had said unidentified men visited Veloso’s house in Nueva Ecija and took pictures. One man also called up Veloso’s sister Darling to ask for her whereabouts.
But Mendez said no untoward incident happened but it scared members of the Veloso family.
Veloso was sentenced to death by firing squad for drug trafficking but the execution was delayed at the last minute after her alleged recruiter Maria Cristina Sergio showed up at a police station in Nueva Ecija to seek protection.
Since Sergio has requested police custody, some personalities have surfaced claiming to be human trafficking victims of Sergio.
Sergio and her live-in partner were later criminally charged by the Department of Justice.
The Philippine government has requested to delay the execution to tap Veloso as a witness on Sergio’s human trafficking, illegal recruitment and estafa raps the Department of Justice filed against Sergio.
Sergio and her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao are detained at the Nueva Ecija provincial jail by virtue of a warrant of arrest the Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court issued against them on an illegal recruitment charge.
Veloso, in her statement to agents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) who interviewed her in Wirogunan Prison in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in March, said it was Sergio who took her to Malaysia in April 2010 to arrange a maid’s job for her there.
In Malaysia, while waiting for her prospective employer, she said Sergio planned a trip to Indonesia to meet someone. Later, Sergio said she could not make the trip and asked her to go instead.
That was when she met Sergio’s live-in partner, Lacanilao, and his friend, an African she identified only as Ike.
Veloso said Ike gave her a bag in which to carry her clothes on her trip to Indonesia and Sergio gave her a number to call a person who would meet her at the airport.
But at the airport in Yogyakarta, authorities found 2.6 kilograms of heroin hidden in the bag. Veloso was arrested and tried on charges of drug trafficking. On Oct. 20, 2010, she was convicted and sentenced to death. AC
