MANILA — The so-called Morong 43, or at least most of them, were freed on December 17, more than 10 months after they were illegally arrested and jailed by the police and military, which accused them of being communist guerrillas.
Relatives and supporters of the political prisoners had been waiting for days for this moment to come, a week after President Benigno S. Aquino III ordered the dropping of charges against them. 
