MANILA -- Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and a group of political prisoners denounced the transfer of one of the "Morong 43" and her three-week-old son from the hospital to a detention facility.
Political detainee Judilyn Oliveros was handcuffed when she was transferred from the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) to the police's Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City Wednesday with her newborn baby. She was not able to carry her baby on the trip during the transfer.
Bayan said Oliveros and her son's transfer underscores the need for the government to review the cases filed against the "Morong 43" who have been tagged by the military as members of the New People's Army (NPA).
The Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Para sa Amnestiya (Selda), an organization of former and current political prisoners, meanwhile said that the conditions in the detention facility are not good both for the nursing mother and her son.
“We appeal to the President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III for their immediate release on recognizance for humanitarian reasons,” Fr. Dionito Cabillas, Selda National Secretariat said in a statement.
Cabillas said Oliveros and her baby are highly susceptible to diseases borne out of such jail conditions, he added.
Oliveros, a first-time mother, gave birth by Caesarian section at the PGH on July 22. She had been nursing her son in a room there under guard. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)