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Release ailing communist leader, gov't urged

Dennis Carcamo - The Philippine Star

October 28, 2014 | 3:12pm

MANILA, Philippines - Citing her deteriorating health condition, rights group Karapatan on Tuesday called on the Aquino administration to order the release of the alleged communist leader Wilma Austria-Tiamzon from detention on humanitarian grounds.

Karapatan said Austria-Tiamzon brought to the Philippine National Police General Hospital and the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI) for medical check-up on orders of Judge Madonna Echiverri of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 81 issued last October 13.

The court granted Austria-Tiamzon’s motion to undergo medical check-up and treatment. She has been experiencing recurrent dizziness and chronic fatigue and back pains.

Dr. Geneve Rivera-Reyes of Health Action for Human Rights who initially examined the National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultant said the patient’s symptoms are consistent with “Vertebral Artery Syndrome,” a condition that may have arisen from vertebral artery occlusion, which the she was diagnosed with in 2006.

Austria-Tiamzon is also suffering from “spondylolisthesis”, a displacement of a vertebra, the physician said.

Reyes recommended that specialists, particularly a cardiologist and thoraco-cardio-pulmonary-vascular surgeon should examine Austria-Tiamzon.

Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said that Austria-Tiamzon’s arrest and detention violates the GPH-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

"In undertaking her role as a consultant to the peace negotiations, she should be immune to arrests and other rights violations," Palabay said.

The group also called on the government to release other ailing political detainees, including Ramon Argente, who suffered from a heart attack in 2007 and was advised by doctors to undergo a heart by-pass operation.

Due to financial constraints, Argente who is a peasant organizer in Camarines Norte, was only able to see a heart surgeon in 2013. While preparing for his surgery, Argente was arrested in February 2013 based on trumped-up criminal charges of kidnapping, arson, murder and frustrated murder and was detained at the Camarines Norte Provincial Jail.

Argente’s health worsened inside jail. He needed oxygen every day. In September 2013, the courts finally granted his request for hospitalization at the Philippine Heart Center where he underwent a triple heart by-pass surgery.

Last October 13, a court order from the Regional Trial Court in Labo, Camarines Norte directed the Custodial Center at Camp Crame to bring Argente to the Philippine Heart Center for a final check-up to determine if he is fit to travel back to the Camarines Norte Provincial Jail.

"As it is, Argente’s condition at the Custodial Center in Camp Crame, where he was transferred after his by-pass operation, is not conducive to his full recovery. He should be immediately released instead of bringing him back to the provincial jail," Palabay said.

"The release of ailing political prisoners, all 53 of them, is long overdue and should be immediately implemented," she added.