The Honorable Diosdado M. Peralta
Chief Justice, Supreme Court of the Philippines
2nd Floor, Supreme Court New Building
Padre Faura St., Ermita, Manila 1000
April 13, 2020
Dear Hon. Peralta,
We are writing this letter in support of the petition for the immediate release on recognizance of my 68-year-old father Rey Claro Cera Casambre and other elderly, sickly, or pregnant political prisoners, amid the COVID-19 crisis. We are hoping that you would grant it. My father’s freedom will remove him from otherwise high vulnerability to the coronavirus while in prison, and enable us, his family, to better care for him as he struggles through illnesses.
We fear for the life and safety of my detained father Rey Claro, a senior citizen, who suffers from type 2 diabetes and a heart condition. Specifically, he has a slightly enlarged ventricle, mitral valve prolapse, and aortic valve prolapse with mild regurgitation.
Despite government’s assurance that the jails are “100% safe” in the time of COVID, we are highly concerned that my father and those like him are put at an even greater risk. There is a general lack of jail space and facilities for social distancing, proper nutrition to put up resistance against the virus, prompt testing of prisoners and jail employees with COVID symptoms to enable ample isolation, quarantine, and treatment for the infected and the safety of those who are not.
We are alarmed that Philippine jails are over 500% congested, and tally about 4-5,000 deaths every year notably at a higher rate among the detained elderly. Prisoners’ families also have to deliver nutritious food and supplements regularly, otherwise prison rations are plainly insufficient to keep the detainees nutritionally fed, while water supply is irregular. There have also been deaths in the prisons since lockdown, which have not been concluded to be COVID-caused simply because testing is not readily available. This opens a dangerous window to the potential spread of a killer virus. The helplessness and anxiety that the fatal microbe could hit our imprisoned relatives – who have no reason to be in prison at all because they are but falsely charged – is becoming unspeakable.
Your Honor, my soft-spoken, frail-bodied father, a loving husband and doting grandfather, a former physics teacher and long-time peace mobilizer, has been charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives in Bacoor, and murder and two counts of attempted murder in the hinterlands of Lupon, Davao Del Norte, where he had never set foot before he was arraigned. He has been incarcerated since December 7, 2019, and is now at the Camp Bagong Diwa Bureau of Jail Management and Penology Metro Manila District 4. But he does not belong behind bars. We thus fervently hope that you and your associates will decide in favor of the petition to grant their release. This will also aid government’s objective to arrest the spread of the coronavirus by decongesting prisons and removing highly vulnerable individuals like my father.
We urge the leaders of all branches of the Philippine government to expedite measures for the massive release of prisoners, especially the elderly, sickly, pregnant and nursing mothers – or those most vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. We hope that the Philippines will follow the example of countries such as Indonesia, India, Iran, Germany, Italy, and the United States, that have done this.
Your action upon this matter carries the hope of my family, as well as my father’s continuing life purpose as a peacemaker. We plead for you to spare him from a truly life-threatening possibility of a coronavirus outbreak behind bars. We appeal that your decision be on the side of just compassion.
Maraming, maraming salamat po at ibayong ingat sa panahon ng COVID Sir!
Lubos na gumagalang,
Xandra Liza Casambre Bisenio (anak)
para na rin kina Patricia Corazon Mercado Casambre (asawa)
Sr. Mary Aida Casambre, RGS (kapatid)
at iba pang kamag-anak at kaibigan
Letter originally published by Kapatid – Families and Friends of Political Prisoners
