Political detainees join Estrada resign campaign

Twenty-six political detainees at the maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City held yesterday a day-long hunger strike in solidarity with groups calling for President Estrada’s immediate resignation from office.

"If there is anyone who deserves to rot in jail, it should be Mr. Estrada," said Edelicio Hortellano, spokesperson for the striking detainees, who began the fast at 10 a.m.

He said Mr. Estrada’s alleged involvement in illegal gambling only reveals how rotten the government he is leading has become.

The hunger strikers are housed at Building 11-B. They were joined by scores of church workers and their families, who were let in yesterday, it being Saturday, when visitations are allowed.

The strikers said their fellow political detainees in various jails across the country are ready to hold a coordinated hunger strike if the President refuses to step down.

They also called on the Filipino people to join the general strike on Nov. 14.

"This hunger strike is only symbolic but in the event that Mr. Estrada insists on staying in his office, we will call an extended hunger strike, this time, on a nationwide scale, among fellow political detainees," he said.

There are over a 100 of the so-called "prisoners of conscience" being held in various jails across the country. They have been protesting their incarceration on ordinary criminal charges, saying that their crime being political, they should instead be charged for rebellion.

Hortellano said political detainees are holding political discussions among NBP inmates to inform them of the gravity of Mr. Estrada’s offenses against the Filipino people.

The National Democratic Front and the Communist Party of the Philippines have demanded their immediate release as a condition to the peace talks with the government. The talks have bogged down, however, because of President Estrada’s refusal to recognize the political nature of the detainees’ crimes. – Romel Bagares