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Arrested activists and advocate for the urban poor Queen Mae Nasino at the burial of her 3-month-old daughter, River, at the Manila North Cemetery in Manila on October 16, 2020.
FILE PHOTO OF INQUIRER / RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines – An international human rights group has warned the Philippine government that their alleged mistreatment of political prisoner Queen Mae Nasino and her daughter violated various international standards on prisoners and children.
According to the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) and its other chapters around the world, international standards on how women and children should be treated were violated when Nasino was separated from her daughter River and when she was not allowed him to see the three-month-old baby when he got sick.
River died on October 9, due to respiratory complications, but the groups believe that if the court had allowed Nasino to be with his daughter under a temporary release scheme, the death could have been avoided.
The ICHRP noted that article 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which the country is a State party, says that “the best interests of the baby will be the primary consideration in all actions related to children, whether carried out by public or private social welfare institutions, administrative authorities, legislative bodies or courts of justice “.
“The treatment of Queen Mae Nasino and her Baby River by the state has violated international standards for the treatment of prisoners and children,” said the ICHRP chapter in British Columbia, Canada.
The controversy followed the government’s treatment of Nasino during his daughter’s burial, which activist groups said was “kidnapped” after police asked the hearse to go ahead and leave the mourners behind.
Nasino was one of several activists arrested during raids on the offices of various non-governmental organizations in 2019. When Nasino was captured for illegal possession of firearms and explosives, she did not know that she was already a month pregnant.
She then gave birth to River last July. The court did not grant her requests, either to be temporarily released or to allow River to remain inside the Manila city jail so that he could care for her.
Nasino’s case came to attention after his camp tried to plead with the court to allow him to visit his sick son, who was showing symptoms of COVID-19. Hours before River died in the intensive care unit of the Philippine General Hospital, Nasino’s offer went unheeded.
Sister Patricia Fox, the Australian missionary who was deported under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, said Nasino’s deal seems like the legal right to leave can only be granted to powerful people.
“A legal right intended for prisoners, but the Duterte government considered it a privilege only to be granted to its allies and powerful elite,” Fox, spokesman for the Asia Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, said in a statement.
Kapatid, a group of relatives of political prisoners, noted that the reduction of the license and the general refusal of the court to give Nasino the opportunity to care for his daughter is ironic, especially since former presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Joseph Estrada They were both granted leave during their detention.
Arroyo was placed under hospital arrest in 2011 due to a case of electoral fraud, while Estrada faced looting charges and was convicted during Arroyo’s tenure.
Kapatid also recently criticized Nasino’s supposedly too long quarantine period, 21 days instead of the 14 days normally prescribed, which amounts to a “bartolina” or solitary confinement punishments.
“We observe the selective accommodation policy and the blatant disregard for the principle of justice,” said ICHRP-British Columbia.
“Individuals and groups who committed crimes against the people are exempt from prosecution and accountability, while the poor and those who work on social justice issues are arrested and imprisoned on trumped-up charges,” he added.
JPV
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