Gabriela solon calls for release of activist who just gave birth

Reina Nasino with her newborn at the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila. (Photo from the official Facebook page of Rep. Arlene Brosas)

MANILA, Philippines — Gabriela Women’s Partylist Rep. Arlene Brosas called on the Supreme Court on Wednesday to allow the release political prisoner Reina “Ina” Nasino on “humanitarian grounds,” specifically to let her nurse her newborn.

Accompanied by jail guards, Nasino gave birth to her first child on Wednesday at the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila.

Brosas argued that Nasino had already “suffered great trauma when she was illegally arrested and forced to spend most of her pregnancy in jail.”

Nasino was among the three activists arrested in a raid in November last year. They were charged with illegal possession of firearms.

“We believe that this is the right time for the government to be compassionate and let a mother nurse her newborn child outside of prison,” Brosas stressed.

Nasino is among the petitioners in an urgent plea filed before the high court, calling for the release of vulnerable prisoners in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SC has yet to act on their petition despite appeals from relatives of detainees and recommendation of the UN High Comissioner on Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to release “every person detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners and others detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views.”

/atm