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A group of Filipino political prisoners, including the elderly and sick, today petitioned the Supreme Court to ask for their temporary liberty, saying that the country’s crowded jails make it likely for them to be infected of the potentially deadly COVID-19.
In their petition, the 23 prisoners asked for their temporary release while Luzon is on lockdown, which is scheduled to end on April 30.
“Needless to say, the continued incarceration of petitioners who are sick and elderly would be a virtual death sentence,” their petition said, and added that they would also like to also ask for the release of other vulnerable prisoners. They urged the court to create a Prisoner Release Committee that would implement their release as well as of the others.
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“Petitioners are praying for a fair chance at surviving the devastating impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in spaces that are not blighted with the overcrowding and lack of access to hygiene measures and medical care,” the group said.
“The congestion rate of prisons in the Philippines is more than 500% of their capacity…It is inevitable to have contact with the prison guards and staff who live in communities outside the jail, the kitchen staff who prepare their food and the delivery personnel who deliver huge volumes of items needed by the penitentiary daily,” they said, adding that they are willing to post bail just so they could be released.
They vowed that they will not cause any harm to society if the government grants their freedom. They said that their release will even “save the State the costs of providing for their daily needs and lessen the immediate risk to the health and safety” of prison officers.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology chief Allan Iral, Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag, and six other officials were named as the respondents in the group’s petition.
Some of the petitioners suffer from hypertension and diabetes. One has leprosy while another is pregnant, GMA News reports.
Prisons in the Philippines are notorious for being crowded, because it takes years, and sometimes even decades, for a case to reach its conclusion in the courts. Jailed Senator Leila de Lima yesterday asked the government to release qualified prisoners after a detainee in the crowded Quezon City jail reportedly died of COVID-19.
“What are you waiting for? For more prisoners to be infected with COVID-19 in our facilities?” she asked.
