Mary Jane’s lawyer welcomes filing of cases vs recruiters

LUCENA CITY – Human rights lawyer Edre Olalia hailed as “good news” the filing of criminal cases against the alleged recruiters of Mary Jane Veloso.

“Certainly good news. About time,” Olalia, secretary general of National Union of People’s Lawyer (NUPL), said on his Facebook page in reaction to the Department of Justice (DOJ) findings of probable cause to file charges against Ma. Cristina Sergio and her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao and a certain “Ike.”

Olalia described the DOJ decision to file criminal cases against the three as “quite a long road to justice.”

“But we are getting there. The lull will come after this storm,” the lawyer said.

The three alleged recruiters of Veloso will be charged with qualified trafficking, illegal recruitment and estafa based on the DOJ resolution released Thursday.

Veloso was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death in Indonesia after she was caught with 2.6 kilos of heroin when she entered the country to work as a domestic helper in April 2010. She was given a last minute temporary reprieve when she was about to be executed via firing squad last April 29 on the possibility that she was a victim of human trafficking. Veloso has claimed it was her recruiter who made her carry a luggage that she did not know contained heroin.

Both Sergio and Lacanilao denied the allegations in the complaint.

The case was filed by the National Bureau of Investigation Anti-Human Trafficking Division (NBI-AHTRAD) based on the affidavit of Veloso, which was obtained by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency when they visited her in Indonesia.

The resolution dated July 6 was submitted by Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Azarcon and approved by Assistant Senior State Prosecutor Elizabeth Santos and Prosecutor General Claro Arellano.

The case will be filed before a court in Nueva Ecija.