Group Fears For Security of Morong 43 Detainees; Hits Military For Harassing the Health Workers on Hunger Strike

PRESS RELEASE
Dec 9, 2010

The Free the 43 health Workers Alliance fears for security of the Morong 43 detainees as members of the military and police have now been making moves to harass members of the detained health workers.

Yesterday, four elements of 2nd Infantry Division went to Camp Bagong Diwa and attempted to talk to one of the male Morong detainees.

Likewise, Franco Remoroso, another male Morong detainee who was rushed to Pateros-Taguig Hospital after collapsing in their sixth day of hunger strike, was also visited this morning by three men in civilian clothes claiming to be from Taguig Police. These men went into Remoroso’s room and asked questions regarding him and those staying with him at the hospital

Carlos Montemayor, spokesperson of alliance, said “ we criticize such display of brazenness of the police and military. The have no business whatsoever with the detainees who are now in the custody of Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). The have done enough to torture the Morong 43 and are responsible for the illegal arrest and detention of the 43 health workers.”

Montemayor said that the BJMP who is tasked to guard and protect the Morong health workers, by allowing the intrusion of the military and police to access the detainees, have been remiss and acted in complicity in this harassment.

This is part of a continuing attempt to harass the detainees and foil the ongoing hunger strike if not sow fear among the health workers as the illegal arrest and continued detention of the Morong 43 has been putting the military and the police in immense public criticism.

The 43 health workers who were arrested in Morong, Rizal last February are now on their seventh day of hunger strike. They decry the Aquino administration’s inaction on their case even as Pnoy himself has admitted that the arrest of the health workers was tainted with irregularity.