"To show their disgust to the BS Aquino administration, political prisoners start their fast today up to BS Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 28," announced Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general. Rights groups led by Karapatan and Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) staged protest actions in solidarity with the political prisoners’ call to JAIL THE PLUNDERERS! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
"To show their disgust to the BS Aquino administration, political prisoners start their fast today up to BS Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 28," announced Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general. Rights groups led by Karapatan and Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) staged protest actions in solidarity with the political prisoners’ call to JAIL THE PLUNDERERS! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
In front of Camp Crame PNP Headquarters, members of the rights groups held “prison bars” with photos of political prisoners demanding for their release and to jail those who carted away billions of pesos of people’s money through the PDAF and DAP. Camp Crame has 12 political prisoners, including National Democratic Front peace consultants Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, Eduardo Serrano and Renante Gamara.
Also on fast are the political prisoners at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) Maximum and Medium Security, Special Intensive Care Area-1 and Taguig City Jail-Female Dorm in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.
Female political prisoners from Taguig City Jail issued a statement saying, "Sa paglulunsad ng apat na araw na pag-aayuno,nais naming ipaabot ang aming sigaw ng pagkondena kay Presidente Aquino sa kanyang mga pagkakasala sa bayan, lalo na kanyang brutal na kontra-insurhensiyang kampanyang Oplan Bayanihan, ang kanyang pang-ekonomiyang programa na public-Private Partnership at ang DAP na isang paraan niya upang mangulimbat sa kabang-yaman ng bansa." (In our four-day fast, we want our voices heard in condemning Pres. Aquino for his sins against the people, especially his brutal counter-insurgency campaign, Oplan Bayanihan; his economic program the Public-Private Partnership; and, the DAP as his way of siphoning off the people’s money.)
"Ang patuloy na pagdepensa at pagtatanggol ng papet na rehimeng US-Aquino sa kasuklam-suklam na paglustay ng salapi mula sa kabang yaman ng bansa, dapat itong panagutin sa pamamagitan ng pagsasampa ng kasong criminal, pagpapatalsik sa pwesto at paglalagay sa loob ng piitan," (The US-Aquino regime should be held accountable, face criminal charges, be ousted and jailed for pilfering the people’s money),” the NBP political prisoners said in a separate statement. They are scheduled to march inside the compound to show their protest on BS Aquino’s misuse of public funds through the creation of DAP.
“The detention of activists and those perceived as ‘enemies of the state’ and their condition inside jails poses a stark contrast with how the BS Aquino treats the plunderers, especially the beneficiaries/defenders of the presidential pork. It is Aquino’s way of asserting his ‘ignorance’ in the said crime,” Palabay said.
After the picket at Camp Crame, Karapatan and SELDA members went to the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process (OPAPP). Karapatan condemns the so-called peace initiatives of the Aquino government through OPAPP while it supports paramilitary groups through its Php 2.067 billion allocation from the presidential pork, the DAP. OPAPP and the paramilitary groups such as the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) and the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) in the Negros provinces are engaged in ‘peace negotiation’.