For “humanitarian reasons,” an advocacy group for prisoners has asked the government to release a sickly and elderly person deprived of liberty (PDL) from the National Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
Advocacy group Kapatid, in a statement, said that 75-year-old PDL Jesus Alegre – who hails from Barangay Taba-Ao in Sagay, Negros Occidental -- has been detained for 16 years “for a trumped-up murder charge to drive him away from the small plot of land he tilled.”
Kapatid said that “Alegre’s wife Moreta, now 74, and son Selman, 47, were also convicted and are held, respectively, at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong and at the NBP Maximum Security Compound.”
The group said that last June 12, Alegre was brought to the NBP Hospital where he has been repeatedly taken and confined.
“Reports said that he has difficulty breathing, his legs are swollen, and he can no longer sit or stand up without support,” it said.
“He vomits his food and suffers from diarrhea for a week now. He has become very thin and disoriented, and can no longer reach the toilet to urinate or defecate,” it added.
It pointed out that the medical abstract of NBP medical officer Raquel Manalastas dated May 19 showed that Alegre has chronic pulmonary disease and diabetes mellitus.
“As the country marked its 123rd Independence Day, we sincerely ask the government to release Jesus Alegre from prison for humanitarian reasons and let him fight for his life as a free man,” Kapatid pleaded through Spokesperson Fides Lim.