Baby separated from jailed mom in critical condition at PGH

Lawyers of detained activist Reina Mae Nasino asked Friday Manila regional trial court Executive Judge Virgilio Macaraig to allow the former to see her three-month old daughter River "possibly for the last time."

"Today, October 9, 2020, her pediatrician regretfully reported that the baby's lungs have succumbed to bacterial infection and are quickly deteriorating. She is no longer responding to medications and may expire any moment now," they said in an urgent motion.

Nasino's supporters renewed calls for her release from jail as River "struggles for survival" at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

"The doctors said that Reina Mae should visit her baby now while she is still alive," Kapatid, a group supporting Nasino and other detainees arrested for their political beliefs, said in an earlier statement Friday.

"There is nothing more heartbreaking for a mother than being separated with her child whose life is now at greatest risk," it added, appealing to the court and to jail authorities to allow the detainee to be with her child.

The child was brought to the Manila Medical Center on September 24 after showing COVID-19 symptoms. She tested negative for the infectious disease but was found to have pneumonia. She is now at the PGH's intensive care unit.

Kapatid said the child is not responding to antibiotics.

Nasino, detained at the Manila City Jail on charges of illegal possession of firearms, was ordered separated from her daughter in July, weeks after she gave birth.

A trial court judge took into account the statement of the warden that the female dormitory of the city jail has no facility for newborn babies. 

Nasino was one of the detainees who filed a petition asking the Supreme Court for provisional release during the COVID-19 pandemic on humanitarian grounds, fearing their age and/or medical conditions make them vulnerable to the infectious disease.

The SC eventually treated the petition as an application for bail and referred the case to the trial courts handling charges against each of the petitioners, restarting what Kapatid said would be "another long wait" for the detainees and their families.—AOL, GMA News