Political prisoner with cancer seeks release

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MANILA, Philippines — A critically ill activist and labor organizer behind bars is pleading for his urgent release as he battles stage 4 liver cancer and a host of other illnesses.

In an open letter, political prisoner Ernesto Rimando, 55, appealed to his “family and friends, colleagues, and human rights advocates within and outside the country to help in advocating for my immediate release on humanitarian and just grounds.”

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He asked that the public help call attention to his case by writing to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Commission on Human Rights Chair Richard Palpal-latoc and Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.

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“With the help of my lawyers, I have filed a court petition for urgent release. Please help me fight for my life and my freedom,” wrote Rimando, who said he was given three months to live by his doctors.

The activist, a peasant organizer for the National Federation of Sugar Workers, was arrested in a 2021 raid on his rented apartment in Quezon City for illegal possession of firearms and explosives, a charge he denies.

His arresting officers were six armed men in civilian clothes who failed to present a warrant and refused to identify themselves.

Charges dismissed

Rimando said he was “blindfolded, tortured and interrogated on the spot.”

“The arresting team also planted firearms and a grenade in my bag and prepared a hastily revised arrest warrant prior to my inquest,” he added.

A Quezon City court has dismissed the charges against Rimando, but he remains in detention because of eight other charges filed across the country alleging that he was a communist operative whose real name is “Allan Morales.”

Rimando said he learned in May that his liver cirrhosis had progressed to stage 4 cancer and that he also had pulmonary tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pulmonary embolism.

“My doctors have told me that without treatment, I may only have three more months to live,” he said. “[But] a few days after the treatment of my tuberculosis, my doctors stopped the treatment because of adverse side effects and the advanced stage of the cancer. Currently, I am a candidate for palliative care.”

Rimando, a former mechanical engineering student at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, spent most of his life championing labor rights following his political awakening during the antimartial law movement that led to the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution.

778 political prisoners

This experience, he said, “prompted me to abandon my personal ambitions and dedicate myself to serving the workers and peasants.”

It was why, he said, he spent 20 years of his life researching workers’ conditions in Cebu, much of it with the local organization Alyansa sa mga Mamumuo sa Sugbo.

Rimando’s case is not unique.

As of June 2023, the rights group Karapatan counts at least 778 political prisoners, many of whom were detained under the Duterte administration for the nonbailable charge of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.