Urgent pre-SONA agenda: Protestant bishops echo political detainees’ call for freedom

By: InterAksyon.com
July 21, 2012 5:09 PM

The National Democratic Front flag is rendered in a painting. Several NDF peace consultants, supposedly covered by immunity guarantees under peace talks with the Philippine government, are among the political prisoners whose hunger strike is supported by Protestant bishops.

InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines - Eight bishops from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) have expressed support for the ongoing fast and hunger strike of political prisoners, who last week decried the continuing tack of government to throw criminal cases at the detainees in order to keep them in jail.

In a statement issued two days before the State of the Nation Address (SONA), the bishops urged President Benigno Aquino III “to consider the plight of political detainees under his administration and their call for a general, unconditional and omnibus amnesty.”

The fasting started last July 16. Last Thursday, 18 political prisoners in Metro Manila, Agusan del Sur, Cebu and Tagum City heightened their action by going on hunger strike to highlight the call for their release. At least 500 inmates at the Compostela Valley Provincial Rehabilitation Center joined the political prisoners in sympathy. Political prisoners in 10 jails throughout the country have joined the hunger strike/fast.

The UCCP bishops said they are “compelled to amplify” the protest act of political prisoners in the “face of such callous dismissal by the Aquino Administration,” referring to the earlier pronouncement of Malacañang that “there are no political prisoners” in the country.

They also called for the release of the 14 National Democratic Front (NDF) peace consultants who are covered by the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and NDF Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). “As Church advocates committed to the peace process, we view such action as a significant step in bringing forward and revitalizing the GPH-NDFP peace talks.”

In a separate statement, NDF peace consultant Ramon Patriarca criticized the Aquino government because “it has not done enough to comply with its commitments in the many bilateral agreements it forged with the NDF. One cannot but suspect that the June 15 Oslo initiative was meant only as another ‘pogi point’ for the President’s SONA or, as a mere posturing preparatory to ending altogether the GPH-NDF peace negotiations consistent with his Oplan Bayanihan counter-revolutionary program.” Patriarca is a political prisoner at the Camp Lapu-Lapu, AFP Central Command headquarters in Lahug, Cebu City. He is among those on hunger strike.

Among the UCCP bishops who signed the statement of support were: Bishops Reuel Norman O. Marigza, General Secretary of the UCCP; Elorde M. Sambat, North Luzon Jurisdictional Area; Roel P. Mendoza, Middle Luzon Jurisdictional Area; Arturo R. Asi, South Luzon Jurisdictional Area; Jaime M. Moriles, West Visayas Juridictional Area; Dulce Pia-Rose, East Visayas Jurisdictional Area; Melzar D. Labuntog, Northwest Mindanao Jurisdictional Area; Modesto D. Villasanta, Southeast Mindanao Jurisdictional Area.