27 March 2020
Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, Diocese of San Carlos, calls for extraordinary measures to release Political Prisoners
We can all attest that these are not ordinary days. The entire nation seeks to cooperate with social/ physical distancing protocols. Yet, cases of COVID-19 infections are increasing everyday around the archipelago. This is a time for saving lives through much-needed grace and ingenuity. An undeniable threat of catastrophe hovers over jails, filled far beyond capacity in the Philippines. Decongesting facilities will help secure the lives of detainees and jail personnel. We must muster courage to address the glaringly high-risk of a COVID-19 outbreak, now forced upon those behind bars. For all that is humane, good, and loving, now is a moment for urgent action. This is also the call of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Peace advocates appeal that political prisoners should be “top of the list” for release. In light of the unilateral ceasefires called by the Duterte administration for the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), release of political prisoners will be a strong confidence-building measure towards the fruition of the peace process between the two parties. During this COVID-19 pandemic, we can be embracing efforts to inspire mutual-cooperation and community- preparedness. The more than 600 political prisoners, detained under often questionable and dubious charges, comprise a sector of the prison population that can and should be released on humanitarian grounds. The sick and elderly, among them, are at extraordinary risk for severe cases of the novel corona virus. With outbreaks of COVID-19 sweeping the nation, exposing “prisoners of conscience” to life-threatening peril is, frankly, unconscionable.
For the Island of Negros, the plight of political prisoners is apparent. Most of the more than 90 political prisoners were arrested in the last 18 months. Included among these are Church people, activists, and members of farmers’ organizations. Also under detention in Manila is Francisco “Fr. Frank” Fernandez, Jr., a frail and elderly NDFP peace consultant, who was in Luzon for medical consultation and treatment at the time of his arrest.
Peace advocates continue to believe that a just and durable peace can be achieved by addressing the roots of the armed conflict. A key component to such belief is a recognition and respect that human life is sacred. The Geneva Convention and the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) give ample basis for such releases, as under a COVID-19 outbreak, detention facilities will be rendered grossly inhumane. In contrast, saving lives through the release of political prisoners will send a strong message of the Duterte administration’s desire for peace and goodwill throughout the country.
The Duterte administration should act with utmost urgency to decongest prisons as well as engage mass testing and provide separate quarantine facilities; or else, God forbid, prisons and those in them may sink like the ill-fated Diamond Princess and other cruise ships, as social/physical distancing and self-isolation are spatially impossible. Political prisoners, the sick, the elderly and those detained on petty crimes and misdemeanors may all be considered for release—this is a matter of life and death calling for extraordinary measures. Such call is integral to our dream of “a loving, merciful, pardoning, welcoming church.”
MOST. REV. GERARDO A. ALMINAZA, D.D.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of San Carlos
