EPCC NEWS

July 06, 2010

Human Rights Group Calls on Authorities to Free Two Pregnant Detainees in the Philippines.

Los Angeles-- PESANTE-USA , a human rights and peasant advocacy group based in Los Angeles today , two detained health workers accused of being members of the New People’s Army are pregnant and may give birth inside their detention cell in Taguig City if they are not released.

Pesante learned it from the group calling themselves as the Free the 43 Health Workers! Alliance asked President Benigno Aquino III to release the accused communists.

It said in a statement that Judielyn Oliveros, 26, is set to give birth this month inside their detention cell at Camp Bagong Diwa this month. Another detainee, identified as 27-year-old Mercy Castro, is set to give birth on October.

Free the Two Pregnant Detainees

Dr. Julie Caguiat, the group’s spokesperson, said that the conditions inside the detention cell were not conducive for giving birth. She said that the detention cell was “cramped and damp, making the pregnant women and the rest of the detainees susceptible to infectious diseases.”

With this, the group urged Aquino to immediately release Oliveros and Castro as well as the other ailing health workers. Tuesday marked the fifth month of detention for the health workers, who were rounded up by authorities in Rizal province.

“At this point, medical and health issues should outweigh all the legalities of the custodial detention, they must be released under humanitarian considerations to show that the state at least have respect for human rights,” Caguiat said.

“Not just for the ‘Morong 43’ but for every detainee for that matter, the state is obliged to accord all detainees decent conditions and just welfare while in prison,” she added.

According to PESANTE NEWS during martial law, it was the policy of the dictator to release pregnant women from detention and let them gave birth in the hospital. But thing changed after that.

*****

Dr. Julie Caguiat, the group’s spokesperson, said that the conditions inside the detention cell were not conducive for giving birth. She said that the detention cell was “cramped and damp, making the pregnant women and the rest of the detainees susceptible to infectious diseases.”