Former political prisoners led by the Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) today joined human rights and people’s organizations in a rally at the Department of Justice in Manila to demand for the release of all political prisoners through general, unconditional and omnibus amnesty for 335 political prisoners (as of February 2011) in 67 detention centers nationwide.
Angelina Ipong of SELDA said that these political prisoners continue to languish under inhumane conditions inside jails in the almost one year of the Noynoy Aquino presidency. Ipong, a former lay missionary and peace consultant, was released last February 2011, after six years of imprisonment. She was 60 years old at the time of her arrest in 2005 and was subjected to beatings, sleep deprivation, psychological torture and sexual molestation in the hands of the Southern Command of the AFP.
“The demand for general, unconditional and omnibus amnesty for all political prisoners is but just and reasonable because all of them are victims of the Arroyo government’s covert policy of political persecution against persons with different political beliefs. They are charged with fabricated common crimes, conveniently hiding the political nature of their cases, thereby hiding the systematic political persecution committed against people like them,” she asserted.
Ipong also added that the circumstances of their arrests also reveal the pattern and rampant practice of illegal arrests and detention in the country: most of the time arresting authorities have no arrest warrants or have faulty and hastily secured warrants. Thus, their arrest and incarceration are meant to silence them, break their spirits and muffle their legitimate voices of opposition and dissent to government policies detrimental to the people’s democratic rights and interests.
Secretary Leila de Lima personally received the list of political prisoners submitted by human rights group Karapatan while small doves were carried by the rallyists to symbolize their call for the release of political prisoners.
“Just as what former president Cory Aquino did after Marcos was ousted, when she gave general and unconditional amnesty to all political prisoners, we urge Pres. Noynoy Aquino to follow the footsteps of her mother and pave the way for the release of political prisoners,” she concluded.
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