Veloso Recruiter Surrenders to Ecija Police, Says She Fears Death Threats
Sergio: getting death threats, blamed for Veloso’s fate. News5 screengrab
MANILA – (Update2, 2:56 p.m.) Saying she feared for her life, the recruiter of Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso, whom she blames for setting her up to be a drug mule after promising her a job as a maid in Malaysia, has surrendered to authorities, just hours before Veloso’s possible execution in Indonesia.
Maria Kristina Sergio is now in the custody of the police in Nueva Ecija, where she and Veloso are provincemates. They are also godsisters.
Sergio alias Mary Christine Gulles Pasadilla showed up at the Nueva Ecija Police Provincial Office at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, claiming the threats to her life prompted her to surface.
Her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao also yielded to the police.
“Napagpasyahan kung sumuko dahil sa aking mga natatanggap na banta at pangamba sa buhay [I decided to surrender because of the threats and because I fear for my life],” she added. Sergio asked to be placed under police custody for her protection.
She also appealed for legal assistance in defending herself against the charges of human trafficking, illegal recruitment and estafa charges filed against her, her live-in-partner, Julius Lacanilao and a certain “Ike,” a Malaysian-based African whom Veloso says handed her the luggage – where heroin was found on her arrival in Indonesia.
Sergio gave up hours before Veloso faces the firing squad in the Nusakambangan prison in Central Java where she and eight other foreign nationals convicted of drug-related charges are believed to be just hours away from execution.
On Monday, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed a complaint for illegal recruitment, human trafficking and estafa against Sergio, Lacanilao and “Ike”.
In filing the complaint before the National Prosecution Service, the NBI-ATRAD said circumstances of the case showed that Veloso was a “victim of human trafficking owing to the fact of her vulnerability since she was looking for a job to support her family, and was exploited by her recruiters thru manipulation and deception, in order for her to unwittingly transport contraband without her knowledge.”
The agency said it was Sergio who recruited Veloso to work in Malaysia with Lacanilao introducing the two to each other.
It said that before Veloso was to depart for Malaysia, she was asked to carry out an errand in Indonesia before she could be given the job as a domestic helper in Malaysia. This was where Ike’s role came into play.
The NBI said “Ike” then gave an empty luggage case to Veloso along with a plane ticket to Indonesia and a cellular phone with the instruction that she would only stay in Jakarta for two days. Veloso, however, was arrested on arrival at Yogjakarta airport in April 2010, as 2.8 kilos of heroin were found sewn inside the lining of the luggage Ike gave her.
Sergio’s surrender also happened just as President Benigno Aquino III told reporters traveling with him in Langkawi, Malaysia, that the Philippines was pitching the use of Mary Jane as a state witness in Indonesian case against the international drug ring that duped Veloso.
The President talked by phone to Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, and reportedly said it is essential that Veloso be spared in order for her to testify in court against the syndicate, especially now that her supposed recruiter has surrendered to Philippine authorities and law enforcers are hunting down suspects in the Philippines.
Mr. Aquino broke off from his traditional “coffee with media” session in Langkawi, at the end of the ASEAN Leaders’ Retreat, to answer the call from the Indonesian Foreign Minister, according to a news bulletin from state-owned Radyo ng Bayan.