Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - Under heavy security, the alleged recruiter of executed Filipino drug mule Sally Ordinario-Villanueva appeared at the Department of Justice (DoJ) to answer charges of illegal recruitment and human trafficking.
Tita Cacayan wore a light colored jacket, covered her face with a baseball cap, and spoke softly when she faced Senior State Prosecutor Lilian Doris Alejo.
The prosecutor, however, had to reset the hearing because Cacayan did not have a lawyer and the complainants, including Villanueva's brother, Jason, failed to show up.
Villanueva, along with Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain, was executed by lethal injection in China on March 30 for drug trafficking.
Cacayan said she could not get a lawyer because she feared getting out of her house after seeing motorcycle-riding men outside.
She requested for more time to file her counter-affidavit with the help of the National Bureau of Investigation, which has taken her under its protective custody.
Security was tight at the DoJ. NBI agents cleared the way to Alejo's office an hour ahead of Cacayan's arrival.
Alejo reset the preliminary investigation to April 18 and deputized the NBI to serve the subpoena to the other complainants.
Republic Act No. 9208, or the anti-trafficking in persons law, prohibits media from identifying the parties in the case. Under the law, hearings will be held in private.
Alejo also endorsed Cacayan to lawyer Florences Sta. Ana of the DoJ Action Center who would act as her temporary counsel.
Responding to several preliminary questions, Cacayan told Alejo that she briefly worked as a contract worker in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau in 2008.
She also said that her nickname was just "Mapet" and not "Mapet Cortez".
Mapet Cortez was the alias of Cacayan mentioned by Villanueva in her March 26 affidavit where she detailed how Cacayan had allegedly lured her into a supposed cell phone business that required her to travel to China in 2008.
In her affidavit, Villanueva said Cacayan gave her a silver-gray suitcase. At the airport in Xiamen, authorities found 4,000 grams of heroin in the suitcase's lining.
Villanueva had insisted she did not know that there were illegal drugs concealed in the suitcase.
