WE, CONCERNED NEW ZEALANDERS, join the Filipino people?s call for the dismissal of the fabricated charges against the 43 health workers who were arrested in Morong, Rizal, and subsequently detained and tortured by their captors. We also call for their immediate release.

This case of the ?Health 43? will be the first test of the government?s sincerity with regard to the Philippines? new Anti-Torture Act of 2009, which was signed by President Macapagal-Arroyo on Nov. 10, 2009. The law penalizes ?torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.? It defines torture as acts constituting physical torture (systematic beating, food deprivation, electric shock, cigarette burning, rape, etc.) and mental and psychological torture (blindfolding, prolonged interrogation, maltreating a member or members of a person?s family, and denying captives of sleep).

We find shocking and outrageous the physical, mental and psychological torture of the 43 health professionals and workers who continue to be illegally detained and who have been forced to admit that they are members of the New People?s Army (NPA). We hope that justice will prevail and the 43 will be released instead of being kept in jail on fabricated charges?a fate all too familiar to many activists during the Arroyo regime.

The case of the ?Health 43? reminds us of the case of UCCP Pastor Berlin Guerrero who was held incommunicado for more than 12 hours in May 2007 while he was being tortured and forced by his captors to admit that he was a leader of the communist movement. Ms Arroyo was visiting New Zealand then and New Zealanders denounced the human rights crisis in the Philippines, criticizing Ms Arroyo?s hypocrisy in coming to New Zealand purportedly to promote interfaith dialogue even as her regime was persecuting Church workers critical of government corruption.

It would be another betrayal of justice if the Health 43 suffer the same fate as did Pastor Berlin who was imprisoned for more than one year on fabricated murder charges until the Court of Appeals ordered his release and dismissed the case. Until now, Pastor Berlin and scores of ordinary civilians remain targets of state-sponsored repression. Let it be known that we, freedom-loving people of Aotearoa New Zealand, join the victims? families in demanding freedom for the Health 43. Now!

Stop torture and all forms of human rights abuses. Prosecute the abductors and torturers.

?MURRAY HORTON, Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA); GILLIAN SOUTHEY, campaigns coordinator, Christian World Service-New Zealand; MIKE TREEN, national director, Unite Union; KAY WEIR, editor, Pacific Ecologist, Pacific Institute of Resource Management; CAMERON WALKER, Auckland Philippines Solidarity; MAIRE LEADBEATER, Indonesia Human Rights Committee; BECKY HORTON, Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA); PAUL ELWELL-SUTTON, Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA); LOLOMA BIBIRAIJELI, Aotearoa Student Christian Movement