Fearing COVID-19, at-risk prisoners ask Supreme Court for temporary release

Twenty-three elderly, sick, or pregnant political prisoners detained in crowded facilities have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to order their temporary release, fearing their health conditions make them vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. 

In a petition filed Wednesday, the prisoners, including National Democratic Front consultant Vicente Ladlad, urged the SC to order their release on humanitarian considerations through bail or recognizance. 

"Needless to say, the continued incarceration of petitioners who are sick and elderly would be a virtual death sentence," they said. 

They sought the same temporary release for other similarly situated prisoners who were not able to subscribe to the petition.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology chief Allan Iral, Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag, and six other jail and prison authorities were named as respondents in the petition.

The petitioners also urged the SC to mandate the creation of a committee to study and implement the release of other vulnerable prisoners in congested facilities and to declare the issuance of ground rules on the release of eligible prisoners. 

"To reiterate, petitioners herein are elderly and sickly, and with medical conditions that require continuous monitoring and treatment," their petition states. 

"While they are charged with common crimes, the arrest, detention and charges against the petitioners are due to their political beliefs. They are not hardened criminals. They will not evade trial nor flee from the charges," it adds. 

Most of the petitioners are elderly prisoners who have diabetes, hypertension, and/or other ailments. One has leprosy, and one is pregnant. 

The petitioners said their continued detention despite their medical condition is "tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment, which the 1987 Constitution explicitly prohibits."  

Both the BuCor, which has custody of national prisoners, and the BJMP, which houses detainees awaiting or undergoing trial, recently said their facilities remain free of COVID-19. 

Año has also said jails are the "safest" place for detainees.

The new petition echoes an international call for the release of prisoners or detainees belonging to at-risk groups. A number of countries such as Indonesia and Iran have started or announced plans to release thousands of prisoners to help curb the spread of the deadly virus. 

They said this call is anchored on both international law principles and conventions and on humanitarian grounds. 

High congestion rates in Philippine prisons make social distancing impossible, the petitioners said. Despite the lockdown of jails, they said contact between them and prison guards and staff is inevitable. 

They also said prisoners are already prone to diseases due to the lack of proper nutrition, sanitation, access to medicine and medical facilities, and even a steady supply of water and soap. 

"Prison authorities, even from developed countries, cannot claim that they have devised a system or acquired appropriate equipment capable of stopping the spread of the coronavirus in prisons," they said. 

"It would be unbelievable if any prison official in any country, especially poor countries like the Philippines, to claim that their prison system is capable of handling the virus once it sets inside prison walls," they added. 

Senator Leila de Lima wrote an open letter earlier this month addressed to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases saying selected prisoners must be released by the government to decongest overcrowded jails and prevent the possible spread of COVID-19 among inmates.

"Given the state of our jails and prisons, the infection rate will be catastrophic. We thus offer a solution: decongest our jails and prisons through a systematic release of qualified PDLs [persons deprived of liberty] on humanitarian grounds," De Lima said.

More than 80,000 people worldwide have died due to COVID-19. In the Philippines, the virus has infected 3,764 people and killed 177. Eighty-four patients have recovered. —KG, GMA News