"Now, more than ever, Miradel Torres should be immediately released on humanitarian ground. We appeal to the Court to grant the motion to dismiss the false charges against Torres, and in the immediate, grant her request to be brought back to the Philippine General Hospital," said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.
Torres was brought back to the Taguig City Jail yesterday morning, January 27, with her two-month-old son. Sadly, male inmates at the jail jeered an innocent baby with “Batang City jail! Batang city jail!,” said Palabay.
On January 26, the Regional Trial Court Branch 65 of Infanta, Quezon ordered the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to bring back Miradel Torres, a political prisoner, to Taguig City Jail from a two-month hospital confinement at the Philippine General Hospital after her delivery, where she recuperated from post-natal ailment and to be able to breastfeed and care for her baby in a relatively conducive environment for the mother’s and baby’s well-being.
Her lawyers had asked the court, where Torres is facing charges of murder and frustrated murder, for an extension of the hospital confinement until April 30, 2015 for her to continue breastfeeding her baby. A motion to quash the false charges against Torres was earlier filed in the same court.
Torres was arrested last June 20, 2014 in Lucena City, Quezon Province, when she was four-months pregnant. She had a threatened abortion and was advised by her doctor to bed rest. Instead, her arresting officers forced her to travel from Quezon Province to Taguig City while profusely bleeding. Torres has had series of bleeding while in detention and was confined at Taguig Hospital months before giving birth. She gave birth at the Philippine General Hospital on November 19, 2014.
Pending court resolution on both motions, Miradel is back in prison with her baby. “The situation could not be more inhuman for both Torres and her baby. Torres is charged with trumped-up criminal charges and her child is made to suffer for this. It is only human to release a mother so she can raise her child in a non-coercive environment," Palabay ended.