‘You could have done something’: Courts charged in the Baby River tragedy

Detained activist and advocate for the urban poor Reina Mae Nasino visits the wake of her 3-month-old daughter River at La Funeraria Rey in Pandacan, Manila on Wednesday, October 14, 2020. The Manila Regional Trial Court awarded Nasino a permit to see her baby one last time, however, reducing her 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. RICHARD A. REYES / INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines – A support group for families and friends of political prisoners blames the courts for the tragedy that affected detained activist Reina Mae Nasino and her late three-month-old daughter, River.

“Are we blaming the courts? Yes, we are. You could have done something but you didn’t do it, ”Kapatid spokesman Fides Lim said at an online press conference on Thursday.

“Pinaghintay niyo kami in binigo. You made us wait but you failed us. When we submitted our petition last April 8, we knew it was not going to be easy. When you are related to a prisoner, you are like a prisoner. It is doubly worse when you are a relative of a political prisoner because the law and time are not on your side because they are used against you, ”he added.

Lim noted that she gave a letter to Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta on July 7 asking for judicial intervention after Nasino, a detainee in the Manila city jail, gave birth to baby River at the Fabella Medical Center on 1st of July.

In her letter, Lim said that the baby had to stay with Nasino inside the congested jail so that he could be breastfed, and that “it is a bet that a sickly baby should be in prison during this time of pandemic.”

“That judicial intervention that we expected never happened. All we got after five months of waiting was a 301-page conflicting decision in which the judges debated among themselves whether Enrile’s ruling on bail for the elderly or Mandela’s rules apply to our case while a baby was lying sick and dying, “said Lim.

“That baby died while his mother could not even wipe her tears while in chains and cruelly limited to crying for only 6 hours. Now we will have to go through another longer wait in the lower courts, which may even be fruitless, as one fabricated case after another accumulates against our loved ones, ”he added.

Kapatid also called on Supreme Court Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta to pave the way for the release of more inmates who are deemed vulnerable to the 2019 coronavirus disease amid the threat of infection in prisons.

“The Court of Peralta receives a remedy with the Auto de Kalayaan to save the lives of prisoners. Approve it. Don’t be a passive court, be an active and humane court. This is a problem not only for political prisoners but for ALL elderly, very sick, pregnant and nursing mothers. We ask you to release more prisoners, ”he said.

The group also asked Peralta to grant Nasino relief “to correct the injustice committed against her” from the moment she was “falsely arrested with planted firearms” until she was separated from her daughter.

“Compassion is not just for VIPs, very important prisoners with big names like Enrile, Imelda, Gloria, Bong, Jinggoy and Ampatuan,” added Kapatid.

Nasino, 23, and two other activists were arrested at Bagong Alyansang Makabayan’s office in Tondo, Manila, in November 2019 and charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives, a crime not subject to bail. Baby River, born July 1, was diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis. He then died on October 9 while Nacino was in custody.

Subsequently, Section 47 of the Manila Regional Court of First Instance granted Nasino a permit, but this time to visit his dead daughter. However, the court later reduced the license it gave Nasino to visit the wake from three days in a row to just three hours each for two days: from 1 pm to 4 pm on October 14 and 16.

EDV

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