CA ruling endangers reprieve given to Mary Jane Veloso —Gabriela

The Gabriela Women's Party on Wednesday decried the Court of Appeals' (CA) decision reversing a local court's ruling to allow Filipino death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso to stand witness against her recruiters who supposedly tricked her into transporting illegal drugs to Indonesia in 2010.

In a news release, Gabriela Women's Party Representative Emmi De Jesus said the appellate court's decision is "alarming" as it denies Veloso the chance to present her side on the case. She said it also endangers the temporary retrieve granted to her in 2015.

"How can a foreign government value Veloso’s freedom when it is our appellate court that is not according her due process to defend her side?” De Jesus said.

“Such move betrays our hopes for her overdue freedom, and is a very terrible development on Veloso’s 33rd birthday today. Pinalalala nito ang kakulangan at nahuling pag-aksyon ng nakaraang rehimeng Noynoy Aquino sa kaso ni Mary Jane,” she added.

In an 18-page decision, the Former Eleventh Division reversed the ruling of Judge Anarica Castillo-Reyes of the Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court that allowed Veloso to testify against Maria Cristina Sergio and her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao.

The court said Reyes made an error in allowing the deposition of Veloso on April 27 in Yogyakarta Prison, saying the inmate must be present in the Philippines for the court to admit her testimony subject to a cross examination.

De Jesus maintained that Veloso is a victim of human trafficking. It was even the Department of Justice which recommended the filing of charges against Sergio and Lacanilao in 2015 for violating the Migrant Workers Overseas Filipinos Act.

"Unfortunately, the Duterte regime is further exposing its anti-migrant stance as it sends an ominous signal to other Pinoys in the death row that their own government will not hear their side," De Jesus said.

"This is aside from President [Rodrigo] Duterte's failure to provide decent and gainful jobs at home and his continuation of labor export policy of previous administrations," she added. —Erwin Colcol/KBK, GMA News