Political prisoners in Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) facilities in Negros Island called for the immediate release of sickly and elderly political prisoners on Tuesday, July 18, to mark Nelson Mandela International Day.
The call is consistent with the writ of kalayaan being advocated by the Supreme Court, led by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, to help solve the grave problem of over congestion in Philippine prisons, a press statement from Kapatid Negros said.
The late Nelson Mandela, an activist lawyer and president of South Africa in the ’90s, was one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners, having been incarcerated for around 30 years for his anti-apartheid advocacy. The United Nations Standard Mininum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, revised in December 2015, was named in his honor.
There are 139 political prisoners in Negros Island, of which 27 are women and one an LGBT, Kapatid Negros said.
The number is almost 20 percent of the total 778 political prisoners in the whole country, it added.
The prisoners are mostly farmers, farm workers and ordinary folk arrested on trumped up charges, Kapatid claimed.
A number, of Negros political prisoners are sickly and old, and whose immediate release should be seriously considered by the Marcos administration based on the prospective writ of kalayaan, it said.
Among them are 61-year old diabetic Corazon Javier, and 63-year old Azucena Garubat, Kapatid said.
Other Negros political prisoners whose immediate release should also be effected are 66-year old Epifanio Romano, 65-year old Diosdado Caballero, 63-year-olds Andres Pasyonela and Sidwin Gordoncillo, and 60-year-olds Nilda Bertolano and Abraham Villanueva, Kapatid said.*