Help convicts affected by fire, DOJ told

The human rights group Karapatan urged the Department of Justice yesterday to immediately provide relief assistance to political prisoners detained at the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa who were affected by a recent fire there.

Karapatan secretary general Marie Hilao-Enriquez wrote DOJ Secretary Hernando Perez requesting that political prisoners, whose quarters at Building 11 were razed by a fire last Nov. 28, be temporarily housed in the penitentiary chapel or any building separate from the detention cells of other convicts.

"It is our constant position that political prisoners should be collectively housed apart and distinct from other convicts," said Hilao-Enriquez. "Their rights as human beings and political prisoners assure them of the said dispensation."

The human rights group said the DOJ should promptly repair the burned down building and call for an investigation on the cause of the fire. "Being an advocate of the cause of political prisoners and their welfare, it is imperative for us to know the truth beyond what is released to media," she said.

Hilao-Enriquez also asked the DOJ secretary to look into the case of Donato Continente, one of the convicted killers of US military adviser, Col. James Rowe. She said Continente had already served the minimum term of his sentence and yet there is no effort on the part of the justice department to look into the possibility of releasing him from prison. – Romel Bagares