SC remands to trial courts pleas for release by 22 PDL

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday remanded to the trial courts the petition filed by 22 sick detainees, mostly senior citizens, for immediate resolution of their pleas for release from detention.

The High Tribunal had to send back the cases of the persons deprived of liberty (PDL), all claiming to be “political prisoners,” to the trial courts where their cases are pending because “the issues involved (in the SC petition) are factual” and ordered all judges handling the cases were to resolve the PDL petition “with dispatch.”

It was not known immediately, however, which trial courts in Metro Manila or outside the National Capital Judicial Region are handling their cases.

Said petition was filed by the PDL before the SC last April where they pleaded for their release, either through bail or other means, to decongest jails and prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in their detention facilities.

The PDL likewise asked the SC to compel the government to create a Prisoner Release Committee, “similar to those set up in other countries, to urgently study and implement the release of all other prisoners in various congested prisons throughout the country.”

The issues involved (in the SC petition) are factual and ordered all judges handling the cases were to resolve the PDL petition with dispatch.

Listed as petitioners were Dionisio S. Almonte, 62; Ireneo O. Atadero Jr., 57; Alexander

Ramonita K. Birondo, 68; Winona Marie O. Birondo, 61; Rey Claro C. Casambre, 68; Ferdinand T. Castillo, 60; Francisco O. Fernandez Jr., 71; Renante Gamara, 62; and Vicente P. Ladlad, 70.

The other signatories in the petition include: Cleofe S. Lagtapon, 66; Ediesel R. Legaspi, 62; Adelberto Silva, 72; Alberto L. Villamor, 63; Virginia B. Villamor, 65; Emmanuel Bacarra, 55; Oliver Rosales, 48; Oscar Belleza, 63; Norberto A. Murillo, 66; Dario Tomada, 60; Lilia Bucatcat, 73; Ge-ann Perez, 21; and Reina Mae Nasino, 22, who was five months pregnant at the time of the filing of the petition.

All petitioners claimed to have varying health and medical conditions while published reports stated that Nasino has already given birth in a hospital in Manila and was later returned to her detention cell with her baby.

Respondents in the petition were Local Governments Secretary Eduardo Ano, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra, Director Allan Sullano Iral of Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and Director Gerald Q. Bantag of the Bureau of Corrections.