Kin of detainees ask ‘Tatay’ Digong: Free our dads

FREE THY FATHERS Relatives of detained dads seek their immediate release at a family day event at the Commission on Human Rights headquarters in Quezon City. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — The families of political prisoners of the Duterte administration on Father’s Day pleaded with Tatay Digong, the nickname used by supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte, to free their fathers and drop the charges against them.

“We have pled so many times and brought before the public what our loved ones were really fighting for,” said Ella Durana, wife of detained trade unionist Mark Ryan Cruz.

Cruz was arrested along with seven other activists who were arrested in multiple, simultaneous raids on private residences on December 10, which the United Nations declared as Human Rights Day.

The seven activists, now called the Human Rights Day Seven, were journalist Lady Ann Salem and her partner Rodrigo Esparago as well as Cruz and other unionists Dennise Velasco, Joel Demate, Romina Raiselle Astudillo and Jaymie Gregorio.

They were all charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives and later publicly demonized by security forces as card-bearing members of the Communist Party of the Philippines although membership in the party was decriminalized in 1992.

However, their families maintained that the charges were based on fabricated evidence, and that their arrests were meant to silence their vocal criticism of Duterte’s inaction on labor issues.

“Contrary to what the police were saying about him, Mark is only an activist and a community organizer who has done nothing but help others,” Durana said of Cruz.

“Mark wanted nothing more than to better the conditions of workers,” she added. “As a father, he wanted to secure a good future for his son and for him not to experience the same challenges when he grows up.”

Echoing her sentiments, Demate’s wife, Cora, lamented that they had to celebrate this day while their husbands remained in jail.

Thus far, of the HR Day 7, only two — journalist Lady Ann Salem and trade unionist Rodrigo Esparago—have been freed after Mandaluyong Judge Monique Quisumbing Ignacio found the raids to be a mere “fishing expedition” based on inconsistent testimonies and evidence.

Both Durana and Demate have appealed an earlier court ruling dismissing their motion to dismiss the charges and void the search warrant that was used to arrest the Human Righst Day Seven.

“While the rest of the country is out there celebrating this day with their loved ones, we’re here asking for justice for our family,” Demate’s wife added. “We’re asking that they be released because they have committed no crimes and we’re asking that we be with them again in the next Father’s Days to come.” INQ