Political prisoners in Negros will hold another day-long fast on December 10 to express their unequivocal support to the recently announced resumption of the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front (NDF), a press release said.
GRP and NDF representatives signed a joint statement on November 23 in the European city of Oslo, which formalized their intention to go back to the negotiating table after a 6-year hiatus, as witnessed by their third party facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government.
In a press release, the human rights group Kapatid-Negros Occidental chapter said that at least 100 of Negros island’s 137 political prisoners will join the 24-hour fast, opting to subsist on liquids in lieu of their full meals.
The political prisoners hope that facilitating factors conducive to the success of the peace talks would be immediately processed, like the assurance that all those involved in the peace talks would enjoy security and immunity guarantees, the immediate release of at least 17 detained NDF peace talks consultants, the unconditional release of the almost 800 political prisoners nationwide, and the abrogation of the terrorist designation of the NDF and its personnel involved in the peace talks, Kapatid said.
For political prisoners, these concerns are not conditionalities; rather, these are inputs whose importance were learned from the decades-long peace talks, it clarified.
The Negros political prisoners are also calling on the Marcos Jr. government to release on humanitarian grounds ailing elderly PPs like 75-year old Frank Fernandez and 84-year old Gerardo de la Peña, who are both detained at the National Bilibid Prison in Metro Manila, it added.
Last Monday, 44 male and female political prisoners at the Negros Occidental District Jail (NODJ) in Bago City attended a mass officiated by Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of the Catholic Diocese of San Carlos.
Data from human rights groups show that more than half of the 137 PPs in Negros island today are jailed in, or were residents of cities and towns under the jurisdiction of the said diocese. The human rights group said Bishop Alminaza came to NODJ upon the invitation of the political prisoners.
Kapatid, the organization of the families and friends of PPs in Negros, are also calling for a number of reforms consistent with the spirit and intent of the 2015 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners, otherwise known as the Nelson Mandela Rules.
It is the obligation of the Philippine government to comply with the provisions of the Mandela Rules, as well as other international and domestic rules on human rights concerning prisoners, regardless of whether they are under custodial investigation, are detained and undergoing trial, or already convicted with finality, Kapatid said.
Kapatid revealed the concerns needing appropriate government action in order to improve the situation of political prisoners and all other Persons Deprived of Liberty, and added that the 137 political prisoners in Negros – part of the almost 800 PPs all over the country – are also united in calling for justice for lawyers Ben Ramos and Anthony Trinidad, Escalante City Councilor Toto Patigas, and Karapatan paralegal workers Zara Alvarez and Elisa Badayos, whose extra-judicial killings during the Duterte regime made more difficult the enjoyment of the basic rights of political prisoners to, among others, due process of law, presumption of innocence and competent and independent counsels.*
