On the death of political prisoner Eduardo Serrano

We grieve and we rage. Again.

Eduardo Serrano was a decent man. Eduardo Serrano was a principled man. After all, he was an honorable political prisoner. He was a selfless, simple and humble human being who simply wanted to fight injustice, oppression and penury. And so he did till his last breath.

He would have been freed a long time ago were it not for the cruelty and insensitivity of the dominant political and justice system that treated him as dispensable and nonexistent for the longest time.

Ultimately and in a fundamental sense, the Philippine government is responsible. All our institutions have failed him and others whose lives they deem so cheap—just like the baby daughter of Andrea Rosal or the hundreds of political prisoners who are sick or elderly or both.

After all, political prisoners are written off by this callous government when they are not well-heeled, influential, famous or powerful. Or running for office. But they die with their pedestrian, yet dignified, boots on.

Will President Aquino make time to visit the wake of someone he personally does not know but should have known?

We will be the ones to visit P-Noy with cases even before he jumps into his vacation. There will be no rest for the truly wicked.

—EDRE U. OLALIA,former counsel of Eduardo Serrano, and secretary general, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers