Families of political prisoners trooped to the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, June 16, 2020, to call for justices to vote favorably on the petition to release vulnerable detainees to protect them from the coronavirus disease in jails. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/KAPATID
MANILA, Philippines — Families of political prisoners trooped to the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning to call for the high court to vote favorably on the petition to release vulnerable detainees to protect them from the coronavirus disease in jails.
Led by Kapatid, a support group for families and friends of political prisoners, the families carried red beaded roses handcrafted by political prisoners to symbolize their appeal for SC justices to “vote for life” following confirmed cases of COVID-19 in some jails.
The group made this move on the same day of the expected release of the resolution on the petition as earlier mentioned by Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta.
The group noted that a 22-year old political prisoner is also due to give birth at the Manila City Jail under the threat of COVID-19.
“We bring this red rose which symbolizes our double appeal as we also mark the first year anniversary of Kapatid’s re-establishment from the martial law years,” said Fides Lim, Kapatid spokesperson whose 71-year old sickly husband, Vicente Ladlad, is also detained.
“We pray that the Supreme Court will choose to vote for life in favor of the most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic now invading prison facilities and also out of compassion for Reina Mae Asis Nasino who stands in danger of losing her first child,” Fides added.
Nasino’s mother submitted a handwritten letter to the High Court expressing fears for the safety of her daughter currently detained at the Manila City Jail Female Dormitory. Nasino was arrested with two other activists at the Bayan office in Tondo, Manila in November 2019.
Families of political prisoners trooped to the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, June 16, 2020, to call for justices to vote favorably on the petition to release vulnerable detainees to protect them from the coronavirus disease in jails. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/KAPATID
“Nasa ika-walong buwan na ang dinadala niya. Hindi malayong mahawa siya at ang magiging anak niya. Parang awa na nila. Sana makalabas na ang anak ko,” Marites Asis said in her letter.
(She is pregnant for eight months. It is not impossible that she and her future child could be infected. Please. I hope my daughter will be released soon.)
Latest government data showed 745 inmates have tested positive and six have died in the Bureau of Jail and Management Penology, while 194, including personnel, have tested positive in Bureau of Correction facilities.
Fides said the number of deaths in some jails highlights the urgent need for the petition filed in April to be approved.
She also disputed the claim of BuCor spokesperson Gabriel Chaclag in an article of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism that loneliness could be one of the reasons for the deaths in New Bilibid Prison, along with nightmares, accidents, and illnesses such as cancer and heart failure, among others.
“It is not loneliness that is the cause of death in Muntinlupa but neglect and mismanagement. The Supreme Court needs to act now with the greatest exigency to save human life,” she said.