Political prisoners in the Negros Island Region (NIR) will hold a one-day fast on Human Right Day on Dec. 10 to call on the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to keep its promise to resume formal peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front.
There are 113 political prisoners – or 15 percent of the 755 national total – detained in various facilities of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in the NIR. Fifty-nine of them are in Negros Occidental (mostly at the Negros Occidental District Jail Male and Female Dormitories in Bago City), while 54 are in Negros Oriental (mostly at the Guihulngan City District Jail), a press release from Kapatid said Friday, Dec. 6 .
The NIR political prisoners said that it is high time for the Marcos Jr. administration to tresume the formal peace negotiations, given the worsening political, economic and sovereignty-related issues plaguing the country.
The NIR political prisoners are also calling on the government to immediately release 97 political prisoners nationwide who are sickly, as well as the 103 others who are elderly.*