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Detained activist Queen Mae Nasino visits her 3-month-old daughter River’s wake at La Funeraria Rey in Pandacan, Manila on Wednesday, October 14, 2020. The Manila Regional Trial Court granted Nasino a license to see her baby during the last time, however, he reduced his original request from three days in a row to just two days, on October 14 and 16, from 1 pm to 4 pm every day. (Photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines – The Manila Regional Trial Court’s decision to reduce the license granted to Reina Mae Nasino, a political prisoner whose newborn daughter recently died, was a “grave and ruthless injustice,” according to Kapatid, a group of prisoners politicians’ relatives.
The government should treat Nasino the way it treated prominent politicians who were jailed and sought a permit, and actually obtained longer pardons for matters not related to life or death, Kapatid said in a statement.
According to the group, giving Nasino enough time to mourn her baby River is the least the court can do after she annulled her offers to care for her daughter, who was born while she was detained in Manila. City jail.
“Grave injustice and cruelty. When Queen Mae Nasino first petitioned the court to take care of her son, prison officials objected to this because they are understaffed and do not have a daycare center at the prison, when in fact it is the government’s responsibility to provide such. facilities, ”Kapatid said.
“If the government, through the Bureau of Penitentiary and Penitentiary Administration (BJMP), could grant the big names in politics the privileges of being at their respective family events, the same efforts should be given to Reina Mae.” added.
Previously, the Manila Regional Court of First Instance reduced the permit granted to Nasino from the previous three days to just two days, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm each day.
The court sided with BJMP’s statement, which was based on claims that it had limited staff who could be with Nasino during the leave.
Kapatid cited the case of former Presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Joseph Estrada, who were granted leave when they were detained for various cases.
Arroyo was placed under hospital arrest in 2011 due to a case of electoral fraud, while Estrada faced charges of looting and was convicted during Arroyo’s tenure.
“The government was able to grant much longer days of leave to jailed former Presidents Estrada and Macapagal Arroyo who spent all of Christmas and New Years in their own homes. Has the justice system in the country sunk so low that there is a different standard between very important prisoners and small people who are political prisoners? Kapatid asked.
“Being an activist doesn’t make Reina Mae less human. It does not even deny your rights as a person. She deserves to be by her son’s side until the funeral. Fairness and compassion, simple humanity, must be the standard for all ”, he emphasized.
Nasino was one of the activists arrested in police raids on non-governmental organization offices in 2019. But she did not know when she was arrested, in a raid on Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) office in Manila last November 2019 ., who was already a month pregnant.
Police officers raided Bayan’s office armed with a search warrant issued by Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert, Branch 89 of the Quezon City Regional Court of First Instance. They allegedly found explosives and firearms in Bayan’s office. But Nasino stressed that these were planted.
River was born last July while Nasino was being held in the Manila city jail. Despite Nasino’s pleas to the authorities to let her son stay with her, Section 20 of the Manila Regional Court of First Instance decided to separate them.
The court refused to relent despite calls from various groups for Nasino’s temporary release so that he could care for his son who had shown symptoms of COVID-19.
Last Friday, River, who was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Philippine General Hospital, passed away from acute respiratory distress syndrome.
River’s death and the court’s previous insistence that Nasino could not be temporarily released led to condemnation from various circles that stressed that the state should protect the boy.
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