A Catholic bishop in the Philippines has appealed to the government for the release of political detainees on the occasion of the observance of International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.
Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos said he was banking on the “basic goodness and magnanimity of the heart of the pardoning authority.”
The prelate said his appeal is “founded on the principle and conviction that even the most hardened criminal does not lose his inherent God-given human dignity.”
Bishop Alminaza cited the case of Francisco Fernandez, a 71-year-old former priest who turned rebel leader. Fernandez, who is reported sick, was arrested on March 24 this year.
The bishop said it would be a “great gesture” from authorities to give “humanitarian considerations” to the ailing political detainee.
The oldest political detainee, 80-year-old Gerardo dela Peña, complained of hypertension and is suffering from cataract.
He was first arrested on Feb. 16, 1982, over alleged violation of an anti-subversion law. He was acquitted after one-a-half years in detention.
After his release, he joined the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines and became active in human rights campaigns.
In 2013, he was arrested for murder that was claimed to have been perpetrated by communist rebels.
On Dec. 6, human rights activists and families of political detainees held a demonstration to call the government’s attention to the situation of political prisoners in the country.
According to rights group Karapatan, there are 629 political detainees in different jails across the country as of Dec. 1, 2019.
Of the total number, 382 were arrested, charged, and detained under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Fides Lim, spokeswoman of Kapatid, a support organization for families of political detainees, said 113 of those in detention are sick while 50 are elderly.
“[They] are more than qualified to be released for humanitarian considerations,” she said.
Lim said many political detainees are already “long-overdue for release” because they “already served the minimum of their sentence.”
“In fact, some of them are already overstaying in prison but the government hasn’t acted on their immediate release and there was no program for their reintegration to the community,” she said.
