GRP has freed only 1 prisoner, everyone else is conditional or on merits - rights lawyer

From InterAksyon (Dec 18): GRP has freed only 1 prisoner, everyone else is conditional or on merits - rights lawyer



Bernabe Ocasla, the first political prisoner to die under the Duterte administration

Government has no reason to feel magnanimous over the release of political prisoners because it has freed only one so far, with the rest who are out of prison either freed temporarily for the peace talks or on the merits of their cases, a human rights lawyer said.

Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of People’s Lawyers -- whose members represent most of the detinees -- noted that while 19 consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines were freed as part of the resumed peace negotiations, all of them have had to post bail.

And, he stressed, a “Damocles Sword” hangs over them because their release is only for six months, although defense counsel “successfully extended” this by another six months for half of them with a possible extension for the rest to be negotiated when the third round of talks takes place in Rome in late January.

This means, he said, that there is “pressure and the threat they might be returned to prison if this cannot be negotiated.”

Twenty other detainees “have been released on various modes (bail, acquittal, dismissal, service of sentence, etc.) on their own merits through the routinary judicial procedure, independent of the peace process” since August, he added.

Thus, he said, only one convicted prisoner has actually been freed “through the peace negotiations by way of belated pardon,” although he explained that the recommendation for the release on pardon had been made during the previous administration.

In the meantime, Olalia said, one prisoner has died and two have been hospitalized for serious ailments.

“That is the tragedy and irony,” he said. “More political prisoners are being freed through the usual tortuous tortoise (paced) judicial route than via a hare of promises.”

"Government may perhaps claim to be magnanimous over the release of political prisoners only if it actually releases immediately all the sick and elderly,” Olalia said.

Efforts by the NDFP and government -- which have resumed formal peace negotiations -- to forge a bilateral ceasefire agreement have been stymied by the continued detention of the more than 400 political prisoners, who the rebels said President Rodrigo Duterte had promised to grant a general amnesty, as well as alleged violations by the military of the government’s unilateral ceasefire.

Recently, Duterte, while saying he will free some 150 sick and elderly prisoners by Christmas, has demanded that the rebels sign the bilateral ceasefire agreement first before he will allow any more releases.

The NDFP has said they are open to negotiating and signing a “more stable and principled bilateral ceasefire but the violations of the spirit of (the) present unilateral ceasefires must be addressed,” Olalia said.

The rebels have also said a bilateral ceasefire agreement should only take effect 48 hours after the actual release of all political prisoners.

http://interaksyon.com/article/135371/grp-has-freed-only-1-prisoner-everyone-else-is-conditional-or-on-merits---rights-lawyer