“Today, we wish baby Karl to
have strength to bear the hardships and cruelty in our society. We also wish
him courage to change his world into a better one,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan
secretary general the baptism of baby Karl today. Karl is the six-month-old baby
Miradel Torres.
“Today, we wish baby Karl to
have strength to bear the hardships and cruelty in our society. We also wish
him courage to change his world into a better one,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan
secretary general the baptism of baby Karl today. Karl is the six-month-old baby
Miradel Torres.
Normally, a baby would be brought
to a church to be baptized with his parents and godparents. Afterwards, they
would probably go back to their home and celebrate. But this is not the case for
a son of a political prisoner.
Today, he was baptized neither in
their home nor inside a church but behind prison walls. Torres is facing
charges of murder and frustrated murder, “A concocted story by the Philippine
Army and the BS Aquino government to imprison individuals who are working for
the poor,” Palabay said.
As a consequence of her
incarceration, she had to care of her baby boy inside the detention center at the
Taguig City Jail to breastfeed him. “Certainly
not a place for a child, yet Torres and her fellow women political prisoners
are trying hard to keep their detention center livable,” Palabay said.
Pastor Guillermo Sediarin of
United Council of Churches of the Philippines, also the secretary general of
Karapatan-Southern Tagalog, baptized baby Karl. Women political prisoners,
including Andrea Rosal who lost her new born baby almost a year ago, stood as one
of baby Karl’s godparents.
Kasimbayan, an ecumenical
formation for human rights, arranged the baptism and supported this milestone
in baby Karl’s life. Also present at the event was DEFEND-ST, an organization
campaigning for the freedom of political prisoners who served in Southern
Tagalog.
“Support from friends and
human rights advocates have been pouring in for Miradel and her baby,” Palabay said.
Just three days ago, on May 13, actress Maria Isabel Lopez, American human
rights lawyer Jonathan Melrod and breastfeeding champion Nona Andaya-Castillo
of Breastfeeding Philippines visited the women political prisoners at the TCJ.
They delivered books for the library project of the women political prisoners,
and discussed the campaign to keep Miradel and her baby together to continue
breastfeeding and “not break the mother-child bond especially in his formative
years. “We will continue to wage that struggle,” lawyer Jonathan Melrod stated.
On April 13, the motion to
quash filed by Torres’s lawyers was denied by the Quezon Regional Trial Court
Branch 65. “Thus, her case will go to trial and she and her baby will continue
to languish in jail,” Palabay said.
Torres, an organizer of Gabriela-Mauban
chapter, was arrested last June 20, 2014, while she was supposed to be on a bed
rest due to threatened abortion. Four months pregnant and profusely bleeding,
she was brought to Taguig City Jail (TCJ). She gave birth on November 19, and
stayed at the Philippine General Hospital for two months to recover and
breastfeed. Upon order of the Infanta Regional Trial Court, she was brought
back to TCJ.
Karapatan reiterated its call
to release Miradel Torres on humanitarian grounds. ###