(CNN Philippines) — A start of a new beginning. A new battle.
This was how Edre Olalia, of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) decribed the legal tack to be taken after a stay in the execution of Mary Jane Veloso in Indonesia.
In an interview with CNN Philippines’ Newsroom on Wednesday (April 29), Olalia said his group had yet to see the hard copy of the suspension order to find out whether it indicated an extension or lifting of Veloso’s execution order.
Olalia said that first on the agenda was to gather the members of the NUPL in Indonesia to meet and get their acts together for their next legal move.
“We go back to the drawing boards,” he said. “We have ideas, but we have to collectively decide on these next steps.”
He said that on the legal aspect, Indonesia’ attorney general will coordinate with the Philippines secretary of Department of Justice (DOJ) or the prosecutor general. And on the level of the lawyers, the Indonesians will coordinate with their Filipino counterparts.
Olalia also noted a legal “peculiarity” in Veloso’s case, since she was already convicted for drug trafficking.
“We have to study the most appropriate and efficient and fastest way to which she would be released, should we be able to. And we are confident that we will be able to establish that she is indeed a victim of human trafficking by Sergio and her live-in boyfriend Lacanilao,” Olalia said.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had earlier filed illegal recruitment, human trafficking, and estafa charges against Maria Kristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao and a certain “Ike,” who was reportedly of African descent.
Hours before the scheduled death by firing squad of Veloso and eight others on Wednesday (April 28), Sergio showed up at a Cabanatuan City police station in Nueva Ecija to seek protection from alleged death threats.
The police later clarified that Sergio did not “surrender,” as there was no warrant of arrest for her and, therefore, she was still free to go.
Meanwhile, the DOJ had summoned Sergio, Lacanilao and “Ike” for a preliminary investigation set on May 8, and another one on May 14.
