In November 2019, Reina Mae Nasino, 23, a Kadamay community organizer, was among 62 activists arrested in Metro Manila and Bacolod. She was pregnant.
On July 1, she gave birth to River but was separated from her baby on Aug 13. On River’s third month, she got sick and was brought to the ICU. Nasino, through her lawyers, appealed to the court for furlough but was denied. River passed on without her mother by her side.
We don’t need more villains. The court could’ve been kind, but it chose to be cruel. It could’ve been nurturing, but it chose negligence. Why punish the child for being born to an activist mother? Refusing her the sustenance of milk from her mama’s breast, the court betrayed her future. It stole a child’s life even before she had the chance to do more than begin to live.
Why file charges and detain a community organizer? Is it because Nasino is poor, or is it because she works for social change and the court is under the sway of bigoted, militarist ideologues that think activists deserve to rot in jail?
Even in River’s final moments of life, the court denied her the embrace of her mother. Instead of compassion—even for a little time—this country’s legal system chose depravity. Every one of you is complicit in this tragedy.
Norma P. Dollaga,
Kapatirang Simbahan Para sa Bayan,
kasimbayan@yahoo.com.ph