NUPL to consider legal action vs jail staff, police over treatment of Reina Mae visiting baby's wake

The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) will study whether to take legal action against jail personnel and police officers for their treatment of the detained activist who visited her infant daughter's wake on Wednesday.

"Yes, we will seriously study that legal option," NUPL president Edre Olalia said on the possibility of them filing administrative charges against Reina Mae Nasino's escorts and asking the court to hold them in contempt.

But Olalia hinted they are not rushing to act.

"Given the whirlwind of contemporaneous events and issues at hand, we will choose our battles and fight them at the right time," he said in a message to reporters.

"We seek emotional moratorium meanwhile until the dust of the vortex of incredible cruelty and barbarity has settled," he said.

He later said, however, that they are targeting to take action by Monday after a team of NUPL lawyers volunteered to prepare a suit or other pleadings.

Personnel of the Manila City Jail Female Dormitory, backed up by police officers, accompanied Nasino, an urban poor organizer who gave birth three months ago, on what was supposed to be a three-hour visit to her child's wake in Pandacan, Manila.

Despite the claim of the jail warden that they did not have enough staff, almost 50 uniformed officers ended up escorting Nasino with what their critics said was too heavy a hand for the grieving 23-year-old.

Her lawyers said the jail guards "flanked Nasino wherever she went and refused to let her speak with her family and counsel or view her baby in private." They said Nasino was handcuffed for most of the visit.

They also said the jail guards tried to pull Nasino out while she was being interviewed by reporters.

The NUPL formally informed the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 47, the court that allowed Nasino to see her child, of Wednesday's events in a manifestation filed Thursday afternoon.

"This overkill on the part of the BJMP and PNP personnel destroyed the solemnity of the funeral, depriving the movant of her chance to properly mourn for her dead child," the lawyers said in the four-page filing.

"It also constitutes cruel and inhumane treatment to which no person deprived of liberty should be subjected," they told the court.

According to Bureau of Jail Management and Penology spokesperson Jail Chief Inspector Xavier Solda, the BJMP will look at the nature of the incident and the circumstances surrounding Nasino's furlough.

"We assure you that the BJMP is putting all efforts to protect the PDL under its care, especially in this time of the pandemic, following the standard health and security protocols," Solda said in a press statement.

This is also in response to the call of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines for a probe on the alleged move of the jail guards to block Nasino's media interview.

Nasino's final chance to see her child will be on Friday, from 1 to 4 p.m., for the burial.

Nasino, who was arrested last year on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives, had cited her pregnancy as a COVID-19 risk factor when she joined other detainees in seeking provisional release amid the pandemic.

She had already given birth when the Supreme Court released its decision, which only referred their petition to the trial courts.

She was separated from her daughter, River, weeks after she gave birth. The baby was taken in by Nasino's family.

River was hospitalized late September and died of pneumonia last October 9.— Anna Felicia Bajo/AOL, GMA News