Detained activists make bail

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS? Activists are raising funds to bail out three detained rights workers, including Reina Mae Nasino, pictured above with Baby River, whom she lost in detention in 2020. The target is to get Nasino, Alma Moran and Ram Carlo Bautista released before the holidays, the groups say. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

A few days before Christmas, a Manila court issued the release order for Reina Mae Nasino, the detained activist who lost a baby while in jail, after her supporters raised enough for a surety bond of P282,000. Human rights group Karapatan said that the amount was collected through donations and contributions, but mostly through loans. “Due to the desire to be with their families this Christmas, it was decided that the way for them to be able to bail is through surety bond,” the group said. The surety bond was 20 percent of the total P1.14-million bail. Last Dec. 13, court granted bail to Nasino, and her fellow activists Alma Moran and Ram Carlo Bautista. Nasino and Moran were ordered to pay a total of P420,000 each for their provisional liberty, while Bautista needed to post P570,000. But their lawyers asked the court to reduce the bail as they came from low-income families. —ANGEL YABUT