The relatives of Kapatid show the painting of Jesus comforting a political prisoner to Cardinal David. The painting was made by a political prisoner. Photo by Kapatid Facebook page.

By SINAG JOAQUIN
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – With messages of hope and restorative justice, the newly installed Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David called for the release of political prisoners in time for the Jubilee Year’s Pilgrimage of Hope.

Cardinal David celebrated a belated Christmas day mass inside the Metro Manila District Jail Annex 4 in Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City with 20 political detainees and other persons deprived of liberty, their families, friends and allies on Thursday morning, December 26, 2024.

Speaking in front of the detainees and their families, the cardinal called for the release of political prisoners as a ‘first significant step to prepare for the Jubilee Year’s Pilgrimage of Hope,’ the Kapatid, an organization of families and friends of political prisoners, said in a statement.

“The year 2025 is a year of hope. The release of political prisoners is a sign of hope,” David said, adding that justice should be restorative rather than punitive.

The cardinal also stressed that the prevalence of inequality in the country leads to struggle. He said he longs for the day that it is no longer necessary for people to take up arms to correct the inequities in society.

David’s homily comes in time for Pope Francis’ opening of the Holy Door at the Rebibbia New Complex Prison in Rome on the same day. “This Christmas, at the beginning of the Jubilee Year, I invite every individual, and all peoples and nations, to find the courage needed to walk through that Door, to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sound of arms and overcome divisions!” Pope Francis (@Pontifex) posted on X on Christmas day.

Kapatid said the tenth Filipino cardinal “told stories of the true meaning of hospitality and the need to remove walls of division and discord that are also erected in the human consciousness.”

Prison conditions

In a short program after the mass, one of the detainees, National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant Adelberto Silva lamented the subhuman conditions of Filipino prisoners. He spoke about over congestion of prison cells, lack of food and medical services, and long drawn promulgation of their cases.

This concretizes the message of Pope Francis for the Jubilee Year, Spes non Confundit (Hope does not despair), when he said: “I think of prisoners who, deprived of their freedom, daily feel the harshness of detention and its restrictions, lack of affection and, in more than a few cases, lack of respect for their persons.”

He added that “in this Jubilee Year governments undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope; forms of amnesty or pardon meant to help individuals regain confidence in themselves and in society; programmes of reintegration in the community, including a concrete commitment to respect for law.”

He also called for all believers, particularly bishops and priests, to be “one in demanding dignified conditions for those in prison, respect for their human rights and above all the abolition of the death penalty….”

Cardinal David, for his part, challenged legislators to pass a bill that would force the government to pay prisoners for every year of detention if they turn out acquitted or their case dismissed. He said the amount would serve as compensation and means for the detainees to start with their new life after prison.

Before the program ended, another detained NDFP consultant Vicente Ladlad thanked the cardinal for his second visit in Camp Bagong Diwa this year. ‘You have clearly demonstrated your care for the welfare of persons deprived of liberty, including those illegally deprived of liberty, the political prisoners. With your visit, you help strengthen our own outlook for the future with hope and renewed commitment. Indeed, you are a Pilgrim of Hope and Peace,’ Ladlad said. (RTS, RVO)