Arraignment of Mary Jane Veloso’s recruiters to push through Nov. 11

The arraignment of the alleged recruiters who tricked Mary Jane Veloso into sneaking illegal drugs into Indonesia in 2010 will push through in Nueva Ecija on November 11, as scheduled.
This was after Judge Nelson Tribiana of Baloc, Sto. Domingo Regional Trial Court Branch 37 ruled that the prosecution had adequately specified certain matters being sought by the defense.
In a Motion for Bill of Particulars it filed, the defense said the arraignment of Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao should be deferred because there were still matters yet to be clarified by the prosecution regarding the case.
The defense said the complaint was unclear as to what is the “exploitative purpose” being alleged against Sergio and Lacanilao under Section 4(a) of RA 9208.
"While the court agrees with the accused-movant that the prosecution should particularize the expletive purpose allegedly employed by the accused on private complainant Mary Jane Veloso… the same is considered complied with," Tribiana said in his ruling.
Tribiana added the prosecution had already "particularized and explained the exploitative purpose," citing Paragraph 9, pages 4 and 5 of the prosecution's comment/opposition to the defense's motion for Bill of Parriculars.
In the said portion, the prosecution stated that: "Such exploitative purpose in this case is the use of pruvate complainant Mary Jane Veloso as an unwitting drug courier, which is expressed with sufficient particularity in the following portion of the information."
In the information, the prosecution specified that Veloso was tricked through a "scheme to go to Indonesia with a suitcase, provided by the accused and which contains illegal drugs, thereby deceiving and manipulating the victim to carry and transport illegal drugs to Indonesia."
In his ruling, the judge said given such pronouncement from the prosecution, it has complied with defense's request to particularize the exploitative purpose of the charges against Sergio and Lacanilao.
Tribiana also denied the defense's request to be provided details of Veloso's incarceration in Indonesia, including complete records and the decision of an Indonesian court to convict her, as well as all other relevant documents on any appeal undertaken.
"The court agrees with the prosecution that the facts and circumstances surrounding the incarceration of the private complainant in Indonesia arerather the outcome and not an element of her offense with which the accused are being charged," read the resolution.
"It should be noted that the facts and circumstances involving the case in Indonesia are different and distinct," it added.
Veloso was supposed to be executed earlier this year in Indonesia via firing squad, but she was spared on the last minute after the Indonesian government agreed to let her first participate in the case against her recruiters in the Philippines. —KBK, GMA News

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