Free all political prisoners immediately

Decades after the Marcos dictatorship, the Philippines continues to face the grim reality of political prisoners. Whether under the fascist Marcos dictatorship or “democratic” administrations after him, the rights of political prisoners are repeatedly violated as they are slapped with fabricated charges, arbitrarily arrested and illegally detained. Many of them are tortured and denied their right to counsel and due process.  They suffer through subhuman prison conditions, prolonged imprisonment and intentionally slowed-down judicial process.

We are calling for the immediate release of political prisoners—among them 28 elderly (60 years old and above), 35 women and 48 ailing—on humanitarian grounds. As of August 2013, there were 449 political prisoners in different detention centers all over the country; 154 of them were arrested under the current administration, a significantly large number for an administration that denies the existence of political prisoners.

Poor and inadequate health services from government endanger the lives of the relatively more vulnerable sick and elderly political prisoners. With the meager budget allotted to prison inmates,  jails and detention centers are barely habitable, unsafe and hazardous to the health and general wellbeing of prisoners; keeping the sick and elderly political prisoners longer in prison has led to serious health complications that could be life-threatening.

Take the case of  Alison Alcantara, 55. He suffered from uncontrolled diabetes the past years and recently died of pneumonia, sepsis and fatal arrhythmia after falling into a coma at the New Bilibid Prison.  Ramon Argente, 53, from the Camarines Norte Provincial Jail has just undergone a triple heart by-pass at the Philippine Heart Center. Bringing him back to prison will not in any way help in his speedy recovery, aside from the fact that his detention has been a violation of his rights since day one when he was arrested for a variety of trumped-up charges without warrant.

And who are the the political prisoners? They are activists, farmers and workers, students, professionals, cultural workers. Just recently, a physicist-activist, Kim Gargar, was arrested and detained in Mati, Davao Oriental while doing work as a scientist. The military now tags him as a member of the New People’s Army. Red-tagging and vilification against political prisoners by state security forces have become standard fare to justify their continuing detention and stripping of their rights.

To obfuscate the political nature of their offenses, criminal charges are filed against them usually with insufficient or planted evidence. There is no place for political prisoners in a country supposedly democratic and treading a “righteous path.”

Please join the families and friends of political prisoners, human rights advocates and Selda, the organization of former political detainees, in the campaign to free all political prisoners. Let us all work for the immediate release on humanitarian grounds of the sick and elderly political prisoners.

—MARIE HILAO-ENRIQUEZ, chair, Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda), selda.phils@gmail.com