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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 City, on Wednesday, October 14, 2020. The Manila Regional Court of First Instance granted Nasino gave permission to see her baby one last time, however, reducing her original request from three days in a row to just two days, October 14 and 16, from 1 pm to 4 pm every day. RICHARD A. REYES / INQUIRER
MANILA, Philippines – Detained activist Reina Mae Nasino, whose son died almost two months after being taken away from her, has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to overturn a Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the decision of a court of the city of Manila that separated it from Baby River. .
In a petition for review, Nasino, through the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), said the higher court should accept and settle her case on the merits despite the fact that her baby, River Emmanuelle, is already dead.
Nasino said a SC ruling on the issue could guarantee “compassionate justice” for other imprisoned mothers and their children.
“While Reina Mae and River Emmanuelle were not given the kindness that an inseparable mother and son deserve, the knowledge and resolution of this case would help to somehow guarantee that no mother and son would be similarly denied no only their basic rights under the law, but compassionate justice, ”the petition said.
“The petitioner is taking this action not only to obtain justice for the premature loss of her three-month-old daughter, River Emmanuelle, but also to vindicate the rights of other persons deprived of liberty, pregnant and nursing mothers, who may have experienced the same cruelty of being separated and not being able to breastfeed their children, “he added.
Nasino gave birth to Baby River last July. She pleaded with the judge of the Manila Regional Court of First Instance, Marivic Balisi Umali, to allow her to stay with her son in the hospital to breastfeed her for at least a month, or to at least let them stay together temporarily inside an isolated part from the Manila city jail.
She said that with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important to give you the necessary nutrients your baby needs through breast milk.
But Umali gave more weight to the prison director’s letter that the female dormitory is not the best place to have a baby, especially in the midst of a public health crisis.
The female dormitory also lacks facilities such as a bathroom, a cooling facility to store breast milk, and an outlet for breast pumps in her detention cell to allow Nasino to be with her baby, the prison director said.
The local court also cited the prison director’s statement that they did not have enough staff to secure Nasino if he is allowed to stay in a hospital for a year to be with his baby.
Nasino, through the NUPL, appealed his case to the Court of Appeals saying that Umali committed a serious abuse of discretion with his ruling. But the appeals court in a ruling last month said it was already moot and academic, as her baby was already dead and buried at the time.
But in his argument before the SC, Nasino pointed out that the appeals court made a mistake in dismissing the petition as debatable and academic, adding that it is among the exceptions to the principle of debatable, especially because it emphasized that there is a “danger of that the acts requested to be reviewed or the denounced infraction will be repeated “.
Nasino cited the case of activist Amanda Lacaba Echanis, who was arrested along with her one-month-old baby and is currently being held in the Cagayan Provincial Jail.
Echanis is also struggling to have her baby with her.
“The petitioner also maintains that the controversy does not prevent the Court from solving the problems there,” he added.
According to NUPL, dismissing the petition just because of the death of Nasino’s daughter would be a “grave injustice” for her and other mother-prisoners in a similar situation.
He added that the higher court can use its power of judicial review to guide the lower courts in handling similar cases to prevent a repeat of what happened to Nasino.
“The defendants – Umali, the director of BJMP Allan Iral and the director of the Manila city jail, Superintendent Ignacia Monteron -, the absolute disregard for the right of all detained infants and children born to them while they are detained does not they must be approved by the courts. Dismissing the petition just because of the death of the petitioner’s child will be a grave injustice to Reina Mae and other nursing LDPs and any mother, ”the petition says.
Nasino asserted that his allegation is based on his constitutional right to health, the public interest in protecting an imprisoned nursing mother and the child born to her while in detention, the need to educate the court, the bar and the parties involved about the right to health in relation to nursing mothers and their children and the right of their child to health and the right to breastfeeding.
Nasino claimed that these issues were ignored by the Manila RTC and the appeals court in their respective rulings.
In addition to asking the higher court to proceed with the petition, Nasino requested that it overturn the lower court’s decision and return the case to the Court of Appeals for further proceedings or, alternatively, for the higher court to hear the case. request and solve it in the background.
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