MANILA, Philippines — The group of elderly and sickly prisoners, including a woman due to give birth next month, seeking temporary release amid the pandemic will have to spend another week in a cramped jail as the Supreme Court defers ruling on their petition.
Reports on Tuesday quoting anonymous sources said that the SC, in a full court session Tuesday, decided to “call again” or again take up the petition next week.
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A group of 23 prisoners knocked on the doors of the SC to ask for their temporary release as early as April 8, but the tribunal has only so far asked the government to file its comment on the petition.
“It’s been over two months since we filed that petition for humanitarian releases... Many more prisoners have been getting sick and we don’t even know the real score how many have died from the deadly COVID-19 infection,” KAPATID said in a statement.
“Every day that drags in this case is equivalent to sickness and death. Inaction is like a death sentence,” KAPATID, a support group for families and friends of political prisoners, added.
Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta previously said that the member-in-charge of the case, or the justice to whom the petition has been raffled off to, has been stranded in Visayas due to coronavirus restrictions, delaying full court deliberations on the petition.
Peralta however said he believes the SC may resolve the petition on June 16.
Delay in ruling amid rising COVID-19 cases in jails and prisons
The group reminded the SC that among the petitioners seeking temporary release is Reina Mae Nasino, a political prisoner due to give birth in July. Pregnant women are deemed vulnerable to the deadly coronavirus disease, KAPATID said.
“Unfortunately, she cannot postpone nor delay the delivery of her firstborn to wait for the Court’s decision,” the group added.
Families of political prisoners went to the SC last Tuesday, when Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta previously said that the petition may likely be resolved, to ask magistrates to “vote for life.”
Nasino’s mother, Marites Asis, wrote a letter to Peralta appealing for her pregnant daughter’s release. “It is not unlikely that she and her child become infected,” she said in Filipino.
Latest data from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology showed that 745 of its detainees and 125 of its personnel have contracted the deadly coronavirus. Six inmates have already died due to COVID-19, while 388 have so far recovered.
Meanwhile COVID-19 cases at the Bureau of Corrections jumped to 301, with 223 cases recorded in inmates of the New Bilibid Prison and the Correctional Institution for Women.
Penal and detention facilities across the country are known to be overcrowded, where social distancing and proper hygiene—practices meant to deter spread of the novel coronavirus—are practically impossible for inmates.