Additional Injustice
“This is an additional injustice to Judilyn. As much like being illegally arrested and detained, being pregnant while in prison is an additional suffering and sacrifice on her part. She was not spared from psychological and physical torture in the hands of the military,” the Morong 43 said in a statement released to the media.
“After being blindfolded and handcuffed for 36 hours, she was placed under solitary confinement. In her cell, she had been interrogated anytime at night or day by one or more military men. She was also threatened to be electrocuted when she joined our protest action against the military who forcibly took or ‘kidnapped’ our five companions from their cells in Camp Capinpin, Tanay, Rizal,” the Morong 43 statement read. “Need Judilyn and baby have to suffer more? Is justice and humaneness elusive again as in the era of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?”?
“It is cruel and deplorable,” said Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Luz Ilagan.
Judilyn Oliveros is returned to the BJMP detention facility in Bicutan in handcuffs and on a wheelchair after the Morong Regional Trial Court denied her motion for release on recognizance. (Photos courtesy of Free the 43 Alliance)
“Camp Bagong Diwa is no place to rear a child, much less a baby. Jails are not safe and healthy places for infants,” she said. To subject a newborn to these unhealthy conditions is downright heartless. Judilyn Oliveros should be allowed to care and breastfeed her baby outside of Camp Bagong Diwa,” said?Ilagan.
The congresswoman further said that the court’s decision violates the baby’s right to be fed, to be raised and to develop in a healthy and normal environment and in conditions of freedom and dignity, in accordance with the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of the Child.
Continuing Protests
The women of Morong 43 held a noise barrage the day after Oliveros was transferred to the BJMP. On Aug. 19, no visitors were allowed inside as a “disciplinary measure against the Morong 43 women,” according to the BJMP personnel.
“We are outraged at the prison official’s drastic and inhumane response to the female detainees’ peaceful expression of discontent. They did not violate any prison policy and thus did not deserve such maltreatment,” Carlos Montemayor, spokesperson of the Free the 43 Health Workers! Alliance, said.
“Prison officials should also be reminded that under Republic Act 7438, every arrested or detained person shall be allowed visits or conferences with any member of his/her immediate family, among other individuals and institutions,” said Cristina Palabay of Tanggol Bai, an association of women human-rights defenders.
“This manifests the worse injustices being experienced by Oliveros and child, as well as the rest of the Morong 43, who are already victims of illegal arrests, torture and detention. Justice remains elusive for the doctors and community-based health workers, even pregnant and nursing mothers like Oliveros. Such is the deplorable state of the more than 400 political prisoners in the country, many of them were illegally arrested and imprisoned under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration,” Cabillas of Selda said.
Appeal
Ilagan said the court’s decision is ‘an injustice to Judilyn and her baby and should immediately be reconsidered.’
The counsels of the Morong 43 have filed a motion for reconsideration.
Oliveros said Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Commissioner Ma. Victoria Cardona and CHR lawyers visited them on Aug. 20. “They told me they would support our appeal to the court for my temporary release,” she said.?
“We call on Pres. Aquino to exercise prudence and understanding on the plight of political prisoners as his late father, Senator Benigno Aquino, was himself a victim of political persecution under the Marcos administration. Free the 43 health workers; free all political prisoners,” the Morong 43 said.
Ilagan pressed for the immediate dismissal of cases lodged against the 43 health workers. She said “The cases filed against the health workers were fabricated and their arrest was clearly illegal. Every day that they remain in detention is a testament of injustice.” (Bulatlat.com)
