An organization of lawyers on Wednesday vowed to closely watch prison authorities for any special treatment being given to detainees following the mistreatment of political prisoner Reina Mae Nasino who recently lost her three-month old baby girl.
“We will be watching closely prison officials when they give again the red carpet and pampering to a parade of those who feel they have more rights and entitlements because they grieve differently than ordinary people who are not favored,” said National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) president Edre Olalia.
“There are different laws in the universe after all,” he added.
Olalia lamented that the purported sympathy and compassion by jail officials have been given “in trickles and crumbs to satisfy their guilty conscience and is more of damage control to appease the broad public calls for humanity than a sign of genuine empathy.”
“Security and health reasons obviously apply only to the least, last, and lost in society than to the privileged and powerful,” he said.
Last Tuesday, Presiding Judge Paulino Gallegos of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 47 issued an order which granted the motion of Nasino that was filed by her NUPL lawyers for a furlough to attend the wake and burial of her daughter River from Oct. 14 to 16.
However, Gallegos issued another order on Wednesday which reduced the hours of her furlough.
In his Oct. 14 order, Nasino was allowed to go to the wake of her daughter from 1 to 4 p.m. on Oct. 14 at the La Funeraria Rey in Pandacan, Manila.
She will be also allowed to go to the burial of her daughter at the Manila North Cemetery on Friday, Oct. 16, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Gallegos issued the Oct. 14 order after holding a hearing on Wednesday on the request of Manila City Jail Female Dormitory Officer-in-Charge Jail Chief Insp. Maria Ignacia Monteron who sought to reduce the furlough hours since the facility only has 12 personnel.
The judge said the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) also invoked during Wednesday’s hearing the BJMP Manual which states that inmates are not allowed to stay more than three hours in the place where the remains of the deceased relative lie.
Nasino, coordinator of the urban poor organization Katipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) Manila chapter, is facing non-bailable charges of illegal possession of firearms, ammunition, and explosives.
Nasino, who was arrested by police along with two other activists on Nov. 5, 2019 at a halfway house for members of BAYAN and other affiliated organizations, claimed that the firearms, ammunition, and explosives which were discovered during their arrest were planted.
She is also one of 22 political prisoners which filed in April a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to grant their temporary release for being vulnerable to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
However, the SC decided to consider the petition as petition for bail and ordered the trial courts where they have pending cases to decide whether to grant them bail or not.
Nasino gave birth while in detention but had to give to her mother, Marites Asis, her baby last August after the Manila court ordered them separated.
She has filed appeals to the court asking that she be allowed to take care of her daughter but these were repeatedly denied.