Renewed drive to free all political prisoners

As Ferdinand Marcos Jr. completed his first year in Malacañang yesterday, the human rights alliance Karapatan pressed his administration to render justice to at least 60 victims of extrajudicial killings. These are documented in 40 incidents, among other human rights violations, incurred while pursuing his predecessor’s bloody counterinsurgency campaign.

A day earlier, activists and former political detainees during Marcos Sr.’s 14-year dictatorial regime, including former Sen. Sergio “Serge” Osmena III, gathered at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani memorial in Quezon City. They launched a three-year campaign – “Breaking chains, Reclaiming freedom from Marcos Sr. to Marcos Jr.” – to free all political detainees and prisoners currently in jails nationwide.

According to Karapatan, as of yesterday, June 30, there were 778 such persons, 49 of them arrested since Marcos Jr. became president.

Led by Selda (the association of former political detainees under the martial law regime, formed in 1984), the campaign has the backing of 13 organizations: Kilusang Mayo Uno with its Free Our Unionists campaign, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Tanggol Magsasaka, Gabriela with its Free our Sisters campaign, Courage, Defend Jobs-NCR, Sandugo (the indigenous peoples and national minorities coalition) and Bai, Health Action for Human Rights, First Quarter Storm Movement, Hustisya, Kapatid, Karapatan, Pilgrims for Peace and the Promotion of Church People’s Response.

Among its objectives, the campaign aims to kick off, in 2023-2024, a strong and broad drive throughout the country and abroad to attain public support as wide as possible; to build networks and coalitions with various entities, local, national and international; and to carry out sustained advocacy and lobbying with institutions, within and outside the country, up to the United Nations.

One recalls that during the latter years of the Marcos dictatorship, the political prisoners themselves had successfully waged such a campaign, which involved in-prison protest actions marked by prolonged hunger strikes, after the failure of negotiations with detention authorities. Aided by the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) and Amnesty International (AI), the campaign produced various support groups abroad, mainly in the USA, Canada and Australia among Filipino residents, and in Europe via AI members in close coordination with the political prisoners they had adopted for release.

(“Free All Political Prisoners” was a major demand of the anti-dictatorship movement that grew exponentially after the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in 1983.)

Last Thursday’s launching was made also in observance of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. It was an occasion, the organizers said, to focus on the realities that political prisoners endure: Besides torture and other inhumane treatment, they are made to suffer isolation as well as  unhealthy prison conditions including congestion, insufficient food and inadequate medical services.

“By harnessing our collective experiences and organizational strength, we will intensify our efforts at raising public awareness about the plight of political prisoners and mobilizing broader public support to free all of them and ultimately put an end to political imprisonment,” one statement said.

How have the political prisoners responded to the efforts on their behalf?

From the National Bilibid Prison, they expressed gratitude, reiterating their longing for “freedom from the harsh and oppressive incarceration” to which they have been subjected. Their message, in Filipino, contains the following observations and suggestions:

• The legal process towards release, for those who have received prison sentences, entails consideration of the following: length of the prison sentence, how long they have been jailed, parole, pardon, executive clemency, commutation of sentence and other legal remedies that may be negotiated by their lawyers with the courts that issued the verdicts. General amnesty for all political prisoners would simplify and shorten the process. This issue had been on the table during the GRP-NDFP peace talks, which were unilaterally “terminated” in November 2017 by Rodrigo Duterte. It should remain on the agenda.

• It may happen that release is delayed even after the full sentence has already been served, without persistent follow-up by the family or lawyer.

• The scarcity of lawyers willing and financially able to provide legal services throughout the tedious, time-consuming process is a big problem. Reach out to more lawyers willing to provide pro-bono services and consider launching a fund-raising campaign to help sustain their services, the Bilibid prisoners urged.

On the other hand, the women imprisoned at the Correctional Institution for Women made it a point to thank all those who have continued to provide them material and financial support and boost their morale.

“Urgent and immediate” is the need for the campaign, emphasized the detainees at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City in a brief statement.

“More and more political detainees are being added under the Marcos Jr. regime,” they noted, while releases have rarely occurred. A growing number have been “unjustly convicted of the trumped-up charges against them and sentenced to lengthy incarceration, including life imprisonment,” but without a campaign for their release, the Bicutan detainees observed, these are forced to lobby for presidential pardon and parole – “which, more likely than not, would be denied to them.”

“Usad-pagong” is how they describe the excruciatingly slow pace of their court cases. This is why most of them have been in prison for so long, and it’s due to pressures from the AFP and the PNP, they aver.

Moreover, there have been cases dismissed by the courts, but the accused still couldn’t walk free because they’re slapped with hastily added charges (“sapin-saping kaso”). Some have died in prison without their cases being resolved.

“Nonetheless, whether convicted or not, long-held or new, all political prisoners and detainees should be restored to their freedom. Yes, because invariably all of them face trumped-up charges and are subjected to unjust judicial processes,” the Bicutan statement asserted.

Given the political biases and systemic challenges that must be overcome, the prisoners acknowledge the difficulty of regaining their freedom soon. Still, they are keeping the faith that, with the people’s increasing support, they will win the justice they deserve.