DOJ recommends charges vs. Mary Jane recruiters
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has found probable cause to criminally charge Maria Cristina Sergio and her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao — the alleged recruiters of Mary Jane Veloso, who is on death row in Indonesia for drug smuggling — for illegal recruitment.
"That respondents Ma. Cristina P. Sergio alias Mary Christine Gulles Pasadilla and Julius Lacanilao... be charged... and that the corresponding information against them be filed before the proper court with no recommended bail," read the resolution penned by Assistant State Prosecutor Mark Roland Estepa.
The two will be charged over violation of Section 6 of Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had earlier filed separate criminal complaints against Sergio, Lacanilao and a certain Ike for tricking Veloso into bringing 2.6 kilos of heroin to Indonesia from Malaysia in 2010.
Veloso was found guilty for drug smuggling in Indonesia and sentenced to death by firing squad. Her execution, however, was stopped at the last minute last week so she could testify first against her alleged recruiters in the Philippines.
The DOJ said the victims do not necessarily have to have been deployed abroad first before illegal recruitment could be considered to have been committed.
"The crime of illegal recruitment is already committed when an offender promises to a person employment abroad without the necessary license or authority from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency," read the DOJ resolution.
Apart from the parents of Veloso, also named as complainants were Lorna Valino, Ana Marie Gonzales and Jenalyn Paraiso, who all claimed to have been promised with overseas employment by Sergio and Lacanilao.
"The common thread of the afformentioned affidavits is that respondents enticed them to work either as domestic helpers, factory workers, salesladies, househelpers and/or manicurists in Malaysia, Indonesia or Japan," read the resolution.
The DOJ prosecutor said it was "beyond dispute" that Sergio and Lacanilao committed "large scale illegal recruitment" because of the three complaints from Valino, Gonzales, and Paraiso.
As for the other charges of human trafficking under Republic Act 9208 and estafa under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code, the DOJ recommended that Sergio and Lacanilao be subjected first under a preliminary investigation.
The DOJ said the evidence submitted by the complainants over the human trafficking and estafa charges was "insufficient to charge them in court," so a preliminary investigation is first needed.
It also said the evidence so far presented was insufficient to "establish the exploitative purpose of the complainants' recruitment abroad," a requirement under RA 9208.
The DOJ also recommended that the fresh charges filed by the complainants be consolidated with an earlier complaint filed by the NBI against the two recruiters and which is being handled by Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Azarcon. —KBK, GMA News
"That respondents Ma. Cristina P. Sergio alias Mary Christine Gulles Pasadilla and Julius Lacanilao... be charged... and that the corresponding information against them be filed before the proper court with no recommended bail," read the resolution penned by Assistant State Prosecutor Mark Roland Estepa.
The two will be charged over violation of Section 6 of Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had earlier filed separate criminal complaints against Sergio, Lacanilao and a certain Ike for tricking Veloso into bringing 2.6 kilos of heroin to Indonesia from Malaysia in 2010.
Veloso was found guilty for drug smuggling in Indonesia and sentenced to death by firing squad. Her execution, however, was stopped at the last minute last week so she could testify first against her alleged recruiters in the Philippines.
The DOJ said the victims do not necessarily have to have been deployed abroad first before illegal recruitment could be considered to have been committed.
"The crime of illegal recruitment is already committed when an offender promises to a person employment abroad without the necessary license or authority from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency," read the DOJ resolution.
Apart from the parents of Veloso, also named as complainants were Lorna Valino, Ana Marie Gonzales and Jenalyn Paraiso, who all claimed to have been promised with overseas employment by Sergio and Lacanilao.
"The common thread of the afformentioned affidavits is that respondents enticed them to work either as domestic helpers, factory workers, salesladies, househelpers and/or manicurists in Malaysia, Indonesia or Japan," read the resolution.
The DOJ prosecutor said it was "beyond dispute" that Sergio and Lacanilao committed "large scale illegal recruitment" because of the three complaints from Valino, Gonzales, and Paraiso.
As for the other charges of human trafficking under Republic Act 9208 and estafa under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code, the DOJ recommended that Sergio and Lacanilao be subjected first under a preliminary investigation.
The DOJ said the evidence submitted by the complainants over the human trafficking and estafa charges was "insufficient to charge them in court," so a preliminary investigation is first needed.
It also said the evidence so far presented was insufficient to "establish the exploitative purpose of the complainants' recruitment abroad," a requirement under RA 9208.
The DOJ also recommended that the fresh charges filed by the complainants be consolidated with an earlier complaint filed by the NBI against the two recruiters and which is being handled by Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Azarcon. —KBK, GMA News
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