Former political prisoners slam special privileges for moneyed prisoners

By SELDA
May 23, 2011

The Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA), an organization of former political prisoners, today denounced the practice of granting special privileges given to moneyed prisoners in jails such as in the National Bilibid Prisons in the light of the recent news that former Batangas Gov. Antonio Leviste, convicted of homicide, was able to leave the jail facility without authorization.

Bonifacio Ilagan, Vice-chairperson of SELDA, said Leviste’s case is a classic example on the varying treatments given to prisoners, especially to prisoners who are wealthy, as compared to the situation of the 32,000 inmates, including 53 political prisoners, in said detention facility.

“While Leviste and murder convict Rolito Go, who was also reportedly enjoying the same privileges as the latter, can go in and out of prison, political prisoners, for example, in the Medium Security Compound in the NBP and in detention facilities in Camp Bagong Diwa are in detention cells together with inmates convicted of or undergoing trial for common crimes,” he said.

Ilagan cited the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under any Form of Detention or Imprisonment and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners that obliges states to segregate political prisoners from other prisoners.

“These political prisoners have been long languishing inside jails and have experienced various injustices while in detention as they were heaped upon with criminal charges. It is for this reason that we are persistent in our demands for their immediate release,” he commented.

Ilagan cited the case of activist Rolando Pañamogan, who was unjustly charged and convicted with frustrated murder and is now detained in NBP, as among those who needs to be immediately released especially because he has been suffering from thyroid and liver problems.

“Pañamogan and the rest of the 346 political prisoners deserve to be freed, after long years of incarceration and illegal detention,” Ilagan said.  Ilagan further decried the government’s policy of political persecution against persons with different political beliefs and the filing of common criminal cases against political prisoners.