MANILA, Philippines - One of the detained National Democratic Front consultants has started an 12-day hunger strike to protest alleged failure of the Aquino government to release some of the political detainees in the country.
In a statement, Ramon Patriarca said the government signed an agreement with the NDF for the review and the release some of the political detainees but failed to do so.
"No review of the court cases of political prisoners was ever conducted. Instead, the illegal arrest, torture and detention of social activists and suspected revolutionaries were intensified, such that the number of political prisoners nationwide has almost doubled now to more than 400.
Detained NDF consultants were not released, and their ranks increased, as the Aquino government pursues its counter-revolutionary Oplan Bayanihan with more vigor," Patriarca said.
Patriarca, now detained at a military camp at the AFP Central Command Headquarters in Camp Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu, has started the hunger strike July 11 and will end it July 22 when President Benigno Aquino III delivers his 4th State of the Nation Address.
"Halfway through his six-year term, there is no doubt that President Aquino has failed miserably in advancing the cause of a just and lasting peace in the country," he said.