“Now, more than ever, governments should release every person detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners and others detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views,” United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet stressed.
Bachelet said COVID-19 has begun to strike prisons, jails and immigration detention centers, as well as residential care homes and psychiatric hospitals, and risks rampaging through such institutions’ extremely vulnerable populations.
“In many countries, detention facilities are overcrowded, in some cases dangerously so. People are often held in unhygienic conditions and health services are inadequate or even non-existent. Physical distancing and self-isolation in such conditions are practically impossible,” she added.
Human rights alliance Karapatan reiterated the call to free all political prisoners in the Philippines following the call of Bachelet for urgent action from governments “to protect the health and safety of people in detention and other closed facilities, as part of overall efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.”
As per Karapatan’s data as of March 2020, there are 610 political prisoners in the Philippines, with 102 of them sick, many with life-threatening and debilitating illnesses, and 48 elderly.
Karapatan earlier pushed for the release of political prisoners, especially the elderly, sick with chronic, debilitating or terminal medical conditions, pregnant and nursing mothers, those who are due for parole or pardon, at least one spouse each of political prisoner couples and accidental victims of political arrests should be released immediately on humanitarian grounds as the country, along with other nations, faces the threats posed by the pandemic.
Among them are Reina Mae “Ina” Nasino, a woman political prisoner who is five-months pregnant currently detained at the Manila City Jail Female Dorm; Ge-Ann Perez, who suffers from leprosy, detained at Taguig City Jail – Female Dorm; 66-year-old peace consultant Fr. Frank Fernandez who is suffering from various ailments and his wife Cleofe Lagtapon; and, 80-yr old Gerardo dela Peña who has hypertension and detained in the National Bilibid Prison.
“Contrary to claims that detainees are safer from the pandemic, we assert that the necessary measures to combat the disease such as social distancing and self-quarantine policies are impossible in the country’s overcrowded and highly congested detention facilities, making them fertile grounds for disease outbreaks,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general.
There are 134,748 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) nationwide. The occupancy of most populous jails in the country are:
- 6,237 inmates in Cebu City Male Dormitory
- 4,916 inmates in Manila City Jail
- 3,821 inmates in Quezon City jail
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology has recorded a 394% congestion rate in 2019.
Don’t add to prison congestion for quarantine violations
“COVID-19 poses a huge challenge to the whole of society, as governments take steps to enforce physical distancing. It is vital such measures are upheld, but I am deeply concerned that some countries are threatening to impose prison sentences for those who fail to obey. This is likely to exacerbate the grave situation in prisons and do little to halt the disease’s spread,” Bachelet warned.
Bachelet said imprisonment should be a measure of last resort, particularly during this crisis.
The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has tallied 8,993 violators of curfew hours from March 19 to 26. The breakdown of these cases per jurisdiction is:
- 3,031 cases from Northern Police District (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela)
- 805 from Quezon City Police District
- 452 from Manila Police District
- 689 from Eastern Police District (San Juan Mandaluyong, Marikina, Pasig)
- Southern Police District – 4,016 (Makati, Taguig, Pateros, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa)
Some of these violators have reportedly been detained.
Rights violations in the implementation of the total lockdown in Luzon have been reported in the media, such as being hit by police or barangay captain for “being outside the house” or teens being locked up in dog cages for curfew violations.
Harassment of women in checkpoints have also been reported, such as police or military in uniform requiring the name, contact number and/or address of women passing through and calling them on the phone or police giving their number.
On March 16, 24 UN special procedures (Special Rapporteurs and Independent Experts) expressed that “emergency declarations based on the COVID-19 outbreak should not be used as a basis to target particular groups, minorities, or individuals. It should not function as a cover for repressive action under the guise of protecting health nor should it be used to silence the work of human rights defenders.”
“Restrictions taken to respond to the virus must be motivated by legitimate public health goals and should not be used simply to quash dissent,” the UN experts said.
Crazy