Professor Tony La Viña: Legal alternatives as food for thought

In a legal commentary on “Injustice in Court of Appeals: Failing Mary Jane Veloso,” Professor Tony La Viña, in collaboration with Christian Laluna— a graduate of the Ateneo School of Law — parses legal procedure to show how it sometimes does not meet with the ends of substantive justice.

The article refers to the ongoing case of Mary Jane Veloso who has been languishing on death row in an Indonesian jail, since Indonesian President Joko Widodo stayed her execution for drug running in April 2015.

What the reader takes away from the arguments presented in the article is that the Philippine legal procedure is ill-equipped for 21st century transnational issues that arise from the Filipino diaspora and for the legal needs of its citizens involved in cross-border offenses.  The authors offer legal alternatives that may provide due process for Mary Jane Veloso in what they consider the ‘exceptional nature of her predicament’.

The complete article appears in Rappler’s column “Thought Leaders” of 25 January 2018 and may be accessed at: https://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/194465-injustice-court-appeals-mary-jane-veloso