Karapatan laments SC decision junking release of political prisoners

Human rights groups Karapatan on Friday expressed disappointment at the Supreme Court’s decision to turn down the Philippine government’s request for the release of key National Democratic Front (NDF) members in time for the peace negotiations.

READ: SC junks bid for release of NDF heads invited in Oslo talks 

“It is lamentable that the Supreme Court did not grant the motion for temporary release of the eight (8) detained peace consultants of the NDFP and two political prisoners for humanitarian release to directly facilitate their release,” Karapatan said in a statement.

The government, through the Office of the Solicitor General, said Tirso Alcantara, Alex Birondo, Winona Birondo, Maria Concepcion Bocala, Reynante Gamara, Alan Jazmines, Ma. Loida Magpatoc, Adelberto Silva, Benito and Wilma Tiamzon should be released based on the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

The Supreme Court said only former party-list Representative Satur Ocampo and NDF panel members Randall B. Echanis and Vicente P. Ladlad may attend the formal peace talks of the government and the NDF in Oslo, Norway this month.

The high court said the regional trial courts hearing the cases of the individuals have jurisdiction over them and it is there that the government should file their pleadings.

Nevertheless, Karapatan said it welcomes the SC’s statement that the local courts should give “appropriate priority” to the hearings for the release of the political prisoners.

The group pointed out that the Duterte administration promised the release of political prisoners.

“It is an obligation of the Philippine government to effect the release of all political prisoners in compliance to previously-signed agreements with the NDFP such as the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL),” it said.

Karapatan said all 525 political prisoners are “victims of illegal arrests through the previous administrations’ use of alias or John/Jane Doe warrants, planting of evidence, concoction of stories and perjured testimonies of professional witnesses, and buildup of trumped up criminal charges to put and keep them in jail.”

“All measures to correct the injustices against them should not be compounded by the same tedious legal processes that keep them in jail. No conditions should be set on the release of these individuals who were unjustly persecuted for their political beliefs,” it said.

The Supreme Court set restrictions on the provisional liberty of Ladlad and Echanis, saying their freedom will only be up to six months or as soon as the peace negotiations are concluded or terminated, whichever is earlier.