More than 100 political prisoners all over the country will fast from sunrise tomorrow to sundown on March 22, as they join the call for the release of Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Satur Ocampo, and Anakpawis partylist Rep. Crispin "Ka Bel" Beltran.
More than 100 political prisoners all over the country will fast from sunrise tomorrow to sundown on March 22, as they join the call for the release of Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Satur Ocampo, and Anakpawis partylist Rep. Crispin "Ka Bel" Beltran.
"Political detainees are fasting for the freedom of Ka Satur and Ka Bel. Fasting had been a form of protest against the injustice, within and outside prison," said Donato Continente, former political detainee and now spokesperson of the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA).
Even inside prison cells, the political detainees are still able to continue the struggle, and still continue to the fight for everyone’s freedom, from exploitation and repression, he added.
There are a total of 232 political detainees nationwide, most of them were incarcerated during the Arroyo administration. Among those who will join the solidarity fast are detainees in provincial jails: 13 in Bohol, three in Cebu, 18 in the New Bilibid Prisons and a total of 40 in the provinces of Quezon, Mindoro Occidental, and Tagaytay.
In Southern Tagalog, the "Tagaytay 5" had declared an indefinite fasting, subsisting only on biscuits and liquids since Feb. 20 in protest of inhumane prison conditions and the miscarriage of justice. Political detainees Eduardo Serrano, who is detained in Calapan City Mindoro, Occidental, and Sandino Esguerra, who is detained at the NBP in Muntinlupa City also began fasting last month in solidarity with the Tagaytay 5.
Ocampo was arrested on March 16 on trumped-up charges of multiple murder, while Beltran had been under hospital arrest since February 2006.###