2-day-old baby of suspected NPA leader dies at PGH

MANILA, Philippines — The newborn baby of political prisoner Andrea Rosal, daughter of the late communist leader Ka Roger Rosal, passed away at the Philippine General Hospital on Sunday afternoon, a report from the human rights group Karapatan said.

“At 5 p.m. today (Sunday, May 18), Karapatan received reports that two-day old Diona Andrea Rosal, newborn baby girl of detained Andrea Rosal, passed away at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila,” Tinay Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, said in an email.

Rosal’s baby was brought to the hospital’s ICU shortly after she was born on Saturday morning. The baby had been suffering from hypoxemia or oxygen deficiency in the blood.

Since Saturday, she had been relying on artificial respirator and had been experiencing seizures, Palabay said.

Rosal, 31, was seven months pregnant when she was arrested on March 27, 2014.

Palabay said she was then scheduled to have her pre-natal check-up when members of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Phlippines arrested her. She was charged with kidnapping with murder.

The human rights group believed that her arrest and detention contributed to the illness and death of her baby.

“In Camp Bagong Diwa, where she was detained since arrest, she was imprisoned in a 5×10 meter cell with 31 other inmates. She did not receive any medical attention from jail authorities during her detention in Camp Bagong Diwa,” Palabay said.

Palabay said Rosal’s transfer to PGH this week as ordered by the court was “unreasonably delayed” by authorities from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

“Andrea was experiencing uterine contractions since the evening of May 15, but she was brought back and forth from Camp Bagong Diwa and the PGH because BJMP authorities said there was no available room for her. She was finally admitted only the evening of May 16 and she finally gave birth on the morning of May 17,” Palabay said.

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