Andrea Rosal regained her freedom at great cost

After 18 months in jail, Andrea Rosal, worthy daughter of a worthy father, is finally and rightfully free again.

Her freedom is due to the resolute legal battle and campaign, no thanks to the government which inhumanly refuses or ignores pleas for compassion and humanitarian cries.

Andrea Rosal has proven that all the charges against her were false, pernicious. This malicious persecution has robbed her of her precious time, cost her a child, and brought deep anguish to her family.

Would she have been subject to all this had she been moneyed and influential? Would she have been arrested had she been someone else’s daughter? It is indeed cruel injustice to incarcerate her on mere filial affiliation.

This is proof still of how slow and frustrating—like traffic on Edsa—the justice system can be.

Impunity for rights violations persists because patent trumped-up charges ripen into court cases that take eons of tedious, cumbersome and demanding legal entanglements to resolve.

All those responsible for her misery must be made to account and restitute the irreparable damage to her and her dead baby daughter. Else, justice will come at the right time.

—MARIA KRISTINA CONTI, assistant secretary general for campaigns, EDRE U. OLALIA, national secretary general, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, [email protected]