Group of ex-political prisoners hit Arroyo bail

Group of ex-political prisoners SELDA (Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto) condemned the court’s decision to grant bail to former Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Pres. Aquino was right, the Philippines is not a joke. Indeed, it’s not a joke to allow electoral saboteurs to be freed, while political dissenters are the ones imprisoned,” SELDA secretary general Angelina Ipong said.

Ipong said that the Aquino government doesn’t the nerve to push through with charges against Arroyo, saying it has always been “a lip service” when it comes to holding the former president accountable.

“This government has no real sense of justice. It cannot even arrest Palparan. Worse, it cannot own up to its own human rights record. In fact, Malacañang has to deny on the existence of political prisoners to claim it is a defender of human rights,” Ipong said.

The group successfully ended the week-long fasting and hunger strike of political prisoners in the country. Almost 700 prisoners nationwide participated in the fasting and hunger strike from July 16-23, and ended on the day of Pres. Aquino’s State of the Nation Address.

Leading the hunger strike and fasting are political prisoners from the Special Intesive Care Area (SICA) at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, National Bilibid Prisons Muntinlupa, Camp Crame, Manila City Jail, Nueva Ecija Provincial Jail, Isabela Provincial Jail, and Aurora Provincial Jail.

In the Visayas, inmates in Calbayog Sub-Provincial Jail, Iloilo City Jail, Danao City Jail in Cebu led the strike. Artist Ericson Acosta, who continuously face charges of illegal possession of explosives, lambasted Malacañang spokesperson Edwin Lacierda’s statement that there are no political prisoners as “a highly ingenious and studies performance which, for all its supposed terseness and indifference, still managed to come across as a perversely powerful warning – that as a matter of state principle, political dissenters shall invariably treated in no other context except in relation to common, even heinous crimes.”

“The unabated incidence over the last couple of years of government critics, activists, and revolutionaries being arbitrarily arrested or abducted, tortured and slapped with fantastic non-bailable criminal charges, attest to how seriously such policy of political persecution has so far been put to actual practice by the present dispensation,” Acosta said in a statement.

Solidarity fasting activities in Danao City Jail, where political prisoner Ramon Patriarca was previously detained. Patriarca is now at the Camp Lapu-Lapu in Cebu, where he continues to protest his illegal detention in the stockade of the AFP-Central Command.

Outside the jails, activists who participated in the solidarity fast in Iloilo City wore the orange prison uniform and acted like political detainees in a make-shift prison jail along Plazoleta Gay in Iloilo City.

In Mindanao, inmates simultaneously held noise barrages alongside their hunger strike, to dramatize their protest, including the Compostela Valley Provincial Rehabilitation Center, Misamis Oriental Provincial Jail, Agusan Sur Provincial Jail.

Ipong said that particularly in Compostela Valley, more than 500 inmates who participated in the hunger strike are non-political prisoners who supported the plight of the political prisoners for their freedom.

“We thank the non-political prisoners who participated in the hunger strike, believing that political prisoners should not be in jail because of their political beliefs,” Ipong said.

SELDA criticized Pres. Aquino of his silence on the plight of the political prisoners or human rights in his SONA, saying that the government is blatantly covering up the existence of political prisoners.

“He has the gall to tell the nation that he is a victim of Martial Law, but repeats the same fault of criminalizing political dissent. That could only mean that Malacañang is really sweeping under the carper the issue of political prisoners,” said Ipong.

The blatant disregard on the plight of political prisoners will not, however, tire them to continue with the call for freedom.

We shall continue to demand for their freedom, and jail those who wronged the people,” Ipong ended. ###

Reference: Angelina Ipong, SELDA secretary general 0949-9587373

Message of Support for the Political Prisoners in their Hunger Strike

The Canada Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights supports the political prisoners who are on protest fast and hunger strike in the Philippines.

Philippine political prisoners through their nationally coordinated week-long fast and hunger strike declare what is wrong with the state of the nation and call out for the release of all political prisoners. Since July 16, prisoners in at least 11 detention centres and jails across the country are drawing national and international attention not just for themselves but for all the 385 political prisoners with their demand for immediate and unconditional release.

Of these political prisoners, 36 are women, 12 are elderly and 43 are sick. 107 of them were arrested under the Aquino government.  Many of those arrested were without warrants and charged with criminal instead of political cases. Thirteen (13) NDFP consultants in the peace negotiations remain in jail despite the Aquino government’s commitment to work on their release. These men and women political prisoners are the living evidences of political repression in spite of the government statement that they do not exist.

The political prisoners who are currently on hunger strike and fast are those at the Medium and Maximum Security in New Bilibid Prisons, Male and female dorm of Special Intensive Care Area at Camp Bagong Diwa, Metro Manila District Jail (Cuerna), Camp Lapu-lapu Central Command in Cebu, Victorias City Jail in Negros Occidental, Iloilo Provincial Integrated Jail (IPIL), Calbayog Jail, Misamis Oriental Provincial Jail, and Isabela Provincial Jail.

Families, human rights advocates and supporters, to show their solidarity, have also gone on solidarity fast and picketed the military camps. At the Compostela Valley Provincial Rehabilitation Center, 500 inmates have joined the hunger strike in sympathy with the political prisoners in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.

We continue to be inspired with the strong determination and commitment of the political prisoners to assert their just demands. To protest when one is already in prison is to affirm the moral position that the arrest and continued detention is unjust and hence, to struggle for freedom is morally right and just.

Iron bars do not a prison make. As workers, peasants and urban poor and other sectors march on the streets today and meet up with other people’s organizations from Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon  on Commonwealth Avenue to hold the people’s State of the Nation (SONA), they are joined by political prisoners whose voices and calls for freedom are carried out beyond the prison walls.

We will continue to demand the release of political prisoners in the Philippines.

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

 

The Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights

Vancouver, BC Canada
23 July 2012

Ayuno hanggang SONA ni PNoy, ikinasa ng mga bilanggong pulitikal

by Macky Macaspac

Ikinasa ng mga bilanggong pulitikal ang isang pambansang koordinadong pag-aayuno bilang protesta sa nalalapit na ikatlong State of the Nation Address (SONA) ni Pangulong Aquino.

Nagsimula kahapon, Hulyo 16, hanggang araw ng SONA, lumahok sa pag-aayuno ang mga bilanggong pulitikal sa Camp Crame Detention Center, Calbayog Sub-Provincial Jail, Compostela Valley Provincial Jail, Central Command, Lahug, Cebu, Misamis Oriental, Panay, Cebu, Calbayog, Davao City at sa iba pang bilangguan sa buong bansa.

Sinabayan naman ng mga dating bilanggong pulitikal na miyembro ng Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda), mga kaanak ng mga biktima ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao at mga nagtataguyod ng karapatan ang pag-aayuno o fasting. Bilang pakikiisa, nagpiket sila sa harapan ng Department of Justice (DOJ) at sa harapan ng Kampo Crame kung saan nakabilanggo ang ilang konsultant ng National Democratic Front (NDF).

Muling nanawagan ang grupong Selda para sa general,unconditonal at omnibus amnesty sa lahat ng mga bilanggong pulitikal. Nagsagawa din ang grupo ng solidarity fasting para sa mga bilanggong pulitkal sa iba’t ibang panig ng bansa na nagsasagawa ng isang linggong pag-aayuno hanggang State of the Nation Address ni Pangulong Aquino.

Panawagan ng mga grupo na palayain ang lahat ng mga bilanggong pulitikal. Ayon sa Selda, may kabuuang bilang na 385 ang mga bilanggong pulitikal. Umabot sa 107 ang ilegal na inaresto at ikinulong sa loob lamang ng dalawang taong panunungkulan ni Aquino.

“Ipinagpatuloy lamang ni PNoy (Aquino) ang taktika ng Oplan Bantay Laya ni (dating Pang.) Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, sa kanyang Oplan Bayanihan,” ani Angie Ipong, pangkalahatang kalihim ng Selda.  Patuloy umano ang pagsampa ng gawa-gawang mga kaso laban sa mga aktibista para supilin ang mga kritiko ng gobyerno.

Lumahok din sa pambansang pag-aayuno ang mga bilanggong konsultant ng NDF na sina Renante Gamara, Eduardo Serrano at Eduardo Sarmiento. Sa kanilang pahayag, sinabi nila na pinagkakaitan sila ng karapatan matapos nilang ibulgar ang pagmamaltrato sa mga kapwa bilanggong mga Muslim.

Kinondena rin nila ang pagmamaltrato sa iba pang mga konsultant tulad ni Tirso Alcantara na nakakulong sa Fort Bonifacio at si Ramon Patriarca, na nilipat sa isang kampo ng militar matapos mag-organisa siya ng protesta para manawagan taasan ang alawans ng mga bilanggo sa Cebu Provincial Jail.

Si Randall Echanis, ikatlong nominado ng Anakpawis Party-list at dating bilanggong pulitikal sa piket sa harapan ng Department of Justice.

Hinikayat ni Ipong si Pangulong Aquino na palayain na ang mga bilanggong pulitikal sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng general, unconditional at omnibus amnesty.

“Wala kaming makitang dahilan kung ano ang hinihintay ng gobyerno. Malinaw naman na lahat ng mga bilanggong pulitikal, laluna ang mga maysakit, matatanda, mga matatagal na sa bilangguan at iyong mga mayroong joint agreement on safety and immunity (Jasig) ay napalaya na dapat noon pa,” aniya.

Dismayado rin ang grupo sa pagsasawalang-bahala sa kanila ni Aquino, na anak ng dating bilanggong pulitikal, samantalang ang mga nagdaang administrasyon ay nagawang magpalaya.

Dapat umanong magkaroon ng “political will” ang pangulo para mabigyan ng amnestiya ang mga bilanggong pulitikal.

Ex-political detainees, kin join solidarity fast for the release of political prisoners, Exposes ill treatment of prisoners

Former political detainees, relatives, and supporters of political prisoners on Tuesday held another picket protest this time at Camp Crame on the second day of their fast to call for the immediate release of 385 political prisoners detained nationwide.

Members of Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda), Hustisya, Karapatan and other people’s organizations trooped to Camp Crame, where some political prisoners are currently detained (Renante Gamara, Eduardo Serrano and Eduardo Sarmiento).

“We were deprived of our rights when we exposed the anomalies and ill treatment of staffs of BJMP, PNP and LGU’s to other prisoners especially Muslim prisoners,” Political prisoners  in Camp Crame,  Renante Gamara, Eduardo Serrano and Eduardo Sarmiento said in a statement as they join the Nationally Coordinated Fasting of political prisoners in various jails all over the country.

In the said statement, they condemned the military guards’ ill treatment to their fellow political prisoner Tirso Alcantara in Fort Bonifacio. “He is being poisoned in small doses,” said the three. They also condemned the transferring of Ramon Patriarca to a military detention after he successfully organized a protest to increase food allowances of prisoners in Cebu Provincial Jail.

Selda secretary general Angie Ipong urged President Benigno Aquino III to grant an immediate, general, unconditional and omnibus amnesty to free all political prisoners in the country.

“We find no reason why the government is waiting for when clearly all the political prisoners especially the sick, the elderly, those in jail too long, and those covered by the JASIG should have been released earlier,” Ipong said.

Political prisoners in different detention centers in the country – Calbayog Sub-Provincial Jail, Compostela Valley Provincial Jail, Central Command, Lahug, Cebu,  Misamis  Oriental, Panay, Cebu, Calbayog, Davao City, are currently until PNoy’s delivers his SONA.

Selda said that of the 385 political prisoners, 107 are arbitrary arrested and detained under the PNoy’s administration. “PNoy just continued GMA’s Oplan Bantay Laya tactics under the new Oplan Bayanihan to file trumped-up charges against political activists because the government wanted to quell dissent.” Ipong added.

Ipong urged Aquino to have the “political will” to grant amnesty to all political prisoners in the country. ###

Reference         : Angie Ipong, Secretary General
Contact Number    : 094995887373

Amelita Tomada, (wife of Dario Tomada, political
prisoner detained in Manila City Jail) holds an empty plate to
symbolize her support in the fasting being held by the political
prisoners in different detention centers in the country.

Angie Ipong (in orange t-shirt)
a former political prisoner and secretary general of SELDA joined by
Bea Arellano of Kadamay staged the protest in front of Camp Crame.

Ipe Soco reads the statement of
Renante Gamara, Eduardo Serrano and Eduardo Sarmiento, political
prisoners detained in PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, QC.