At 85, Gerardo Dela Peña is the oldest political prisoner out of some 800 others on the New Bilibid Jail (NBP). In a press briefing on the Home final week, Dela Peña’s family sought Congress’ assist to reunite him quickly together with his ailing 81-year-old spouse.
Dela Peña was arrested in March 2013 for allegedly capturing his nephew in 2001, and was convicted of homicide in 2014 by a Camarines Norte regional trial courtroom that sentenced him to a 20- to 40-year jail time period. Witnesses claimed that Dela Peña, who headed the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto and was a member of the rights group Karapatan earlier than his arrest, was a member of the outlawed New Peoples’ Military. He has denied this and maintains that he was “wrongfully convicted” and was merely a “scapegoat.”
In keeping with Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim, as of Could 2, Dela Peña has already served 12 years and 30 days of his 12 years commuted sentence issued on March 11 by the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP). This, on prime of the time credit he has accrued below the nice conduct time allowance. Dela Peña qualifies for launch as nicely below BPP Decision No. OT-08-02-2023 which states that individuals disadvantaged of liberty aged 70 and older, who’ve already served a minimal 10-year sentence, are eligible for government clemency (EC).
Government clemency
Why the “conflicting indicators” on the case? Lim requested. Final month, the justice division knowledgeable the group that Dela Peña’s petition for clemency had been authorised by the BPP and was pending approval with the Workplace of the President by means of the Workplace of the Deputy Government Secretary for Authorized Affairs.
In the meantime information reviews quoted Justice Undersecretary Jesse Andres as saying that the BPP decision on aged inmates had already benefited two PDLs, with Dela Peña’s title “particularly talked about,” Lim mentioned. In her January go to, nonetheless, he confirmed her a BPP listing dated December 2023 that mentioned he was “denied EC.” Neither was he among the many 22 PDLs granted EC by President Marcos in March this 12 months.
Rights teams have been clamoring for Dela Peña’s launch since 2019 on humanitarian grounds due to his superior age and declining well being that has been aggravated by “subhuman situations” on the NBP, Lim mentioned. He was coughing blood and was overdue for a cataract operation, she added.
In 2021, two political prisoners succumbed to sickness inside NBP: Jesus Alegre, 75, who died of cardiac arrest on June 13, 2021, and Antonio Molina, 67, who had abdomen most cancers. Will authorities neglect and indifference make Dela Peña the following casualty?, Lim requested.
‘Moneyed and highly effective individuals’
Cristina Palabay, secretary basic of Karapatan, lamented how in a different way the nation’s legal guidelines have been utilized in Dela Peña’s case and people of the 2 deceased political prisoners, in distinction to how “moneyed and highly effective individuals” like former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile and former first girl Imelda Marcos have been allowed to skip jail for “humanitarian causes.”
Enrile, President Marcos’ chief authorized counsel, is dealing with plunder prices earlier than the Sandiganbayan for allegedly receiving kickbacks from pork barrel mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, in trade for diverting his growth funds allocation to her bogus foundations. Mrs. Marcos, the President’s mom, was convicted by the Sandiganbayan of seven counts of graft in 2018 for transferring funds into Swiss accounts when she was nonetheless occupying a number of authorities posts throughout Marcos Sr.’s time period.
Regardless of plunder often being a nonbailable case, the Supreme Courtroom in 2015 allowed Enrile to publish bail, citing his “superior age and for well being causes.” The anti-graft courtroom mentioned as a lot when it granted Mrs. Marcos bail.
Humiliating strip search
How may “humanitarian grounds” have vastly divergent interpretations within the case of those politically influential people and that of Dela Peña?, the rights teams have requested. Lim identified that whereas the Bureau of Corrections has launched greater than 7,000 PDLs since July final 12 months to decongest jail amenities, “no political prisoner has been included … not even one.”
Such low regard for political prisoners is clear within the humiliating strip search of their aged wives throughout a go to in April, ostensibly as a result of some guests had smuggled in medicine and cigarettes of their physique cavities. Whereas nobody needs to be above established protocols, jail officers ought to have distinguished political prisoners from atypical felons arrested for widespread crimes. Would Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla have ordered an investigation and the reduction of seven feminine jail officers had the ladies not filed a criticism with the Fee on Human Rights?
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Through the second session of the Summit for Democracy on March 30 final 12 months, President Marcos highlighted the nation’s judicial reforms and pressured that “actual justice means the humane remedy of individuals disadvantaged of liberty.” Dela Peña’s case and the strip search incident ought to give him the chance to be true to his phrases.
