• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
To dramatize their human rights concerns, about 100 political prisoners detained in various jails in Negros Island Region (NIR) will hold a day-long fasting today as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his third State of the Nation Address.
In a statement, the Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN) said that the political prisoners, who will skip eating their three meals, are detained at the Negros Occidental District Jail in Bago City and in few other jails run by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.
HRAN claimed that political prisoners are calling for the immediate release of those who are already sick and elderly on humanitarian grounds.
Among them are septuagenarian couple, Frank Fernandez and Cleofe Lagtapon, former secretary and deputy secretary of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army Komiteng Rehiyonal-Negros/Cebu/Bohol/Siquijor, respectively, as well as Ruben and Presentacion Saluta, and Alberto and Virginia Villamor.
Others include 79-year-old Rosita Taboy and 72-year-old Evangeline Rapanut.
HRAN said that Negros political prisoners are also calling for a stop to the efforts of the Department of Justice to jail members of the Negros Occidental-based Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Development Group and the Cebu-based Community Empowerment Resource Network.
HRAN said that the work of these non-government organizations benefit rural folks by somehow filling in the gaps in the country’s anti-poverty initiatives. | GB
