MANILA, Philippines — The lawyers and family of jailed activist Reina Mae Nasino on Monday reiterated their plea to allow the young mother temporary release, this time, to grieve her three-month old daughter who died last week.
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, Nasino’s legal counsels, personally filed a Very Urgent Manifestation and Motion before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 37 seeking the grant of furlough.
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On Friday, her lawyers filed a Very Urgent Motion for Furlough asking for temporary release for Nasino to be with baby River, her three-month-old daughter, who was then said to be dying.
River passed away on Friday night with the plea still pending.
The Manila RTC Branch 20 in August ordered Nasino and her mother separated. River, then a month-old baby, was turned over to her grandmother on August 13.
In this fresh pleading, Nasino’s lawyers urged the court to allow her to attend River’s wake and burial.
“She implores, nay, pleads and begs, this Honorable Court to immediately give her the decent and humane chance to be with her baby daughter, whom she was not able to comfort and hold while in sickbed up to her dying hours, for the last time, and to properly grieve over her tragic and untimely passing,” they said.
“She prays for true compassion and mercy that any inconsolable mother in deep sorrow needs,” they added.
SC urged to take notice of Nasino's legal fight to be with baby
The NUPL also wrote to Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta to call the Supreme Court’s attention to the proceedings of Nasino’s pleadings to be allowed to be with her baby.
“We are compelled solely by the circumstances to humbly bring this matter to your Honor’s attention for your information and for any appropriate action as you deem necessary and warranted,” they said.
Nasino is one of the 22 political prisoners who asked the Supreme Court for their humanitarian release in April, fearing a coronavirus outbreak in our overcrowded prisons. She was then seven months pregnant.
After a five-month wait, the SC ruled on their petition and directed their plea to lower courts.
On September 10, the SC Public Information Office said that the justices directed the trial courts where the detainees’ cases remain pending to “conduct the necessary proceedings and resolve the incidents immediately.”
In their lettet to Peralta, Nasino’s lawyers stated that she was with child when she was arrested on Nov. 5, 2019, and she gave birth but July 1 at the Fabella Memorial Hospital, but baby River was born underweight.
They then sought the court’s approval to accommodate her baby inside the Manila City Jail Female Dormitory so Nasino could breastfeed River, as instructed and recommended by the baby's pediatrician.
"She also moved to be allowed to express breastmilk and be given access to lactation facilities inside jail. These motions were denied," the lawyers said.
The court also upheld its denial of Nasino’s motion and they were poised to elevate the case through a Petition for Certiorari. This, while the case was re-raffled to Manila RTC Branch 42, then to 37 after two judges inhibited from the case.
On September 24 however, River was rushed to the hospital due to diarrhea and fever. While she later tested negative for the coronavirus, River had to be intubated to be able to breathe.
She had not left the hospital since and was later transferred to the Philippine General Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit .
On October 9, River’s family was informed that the baby was no longer responding to medications. On the same day, the lawyers filed a Very Urgent Motion for Furlough to allow Nasino to visit her baby.
River succumbed to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome on the same night.
The NUPL on Monday filed another pleading before the Manila court to urge the grant of furlough to Nasino so she can attend her daughter’s funeral.