Political prisoners sue jail warden for rights violations

MANILA, Philippines - Political prisoners at the jail facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City on Thursday sued the warden of the Special Intensive Care Area 1 (SICA 1) before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly violating their rights.

 

Through their lawyers, the political prisoners filed criminal and administrative charges against Senior Inspector Michelle Ng Bonto, officer in charge of the SICA 1.

 

In their affidavit, the complainants claimed that Bonto refused to allow family members and doctors to visit the political prisoners who were on hunger strike during the Papal visit last January. 

 

The political prisoners, in the course of the hunger strike or fasting, faced reprisals and curtailment of their rights, their affidavit read. 

 

In an earlier statement, political prisoners said Bonto's suspension of visitors at SICA-1 on January 14 agitated some of the detainees, "especially the members of certain hail gangs such as the Sputnik gang, blamed the political prisoners for the prohibition of the visits to them."  

 

"Reportedly, the SICA-1 jail warden herself is instigating the Sputnik gang in threatening the lives and security of the political prisoners and inciting division among all the detainees by unjustly blaming the political prisoners' fasting/hunger strike as the root of the sudden unfair restrictions on their rights," the group said in  a statement. 

 

Marie Hilao-Enriquez of the rights group Karapatan said that Ng-Bonto did not only violate the rights of political prisoners at SICA-1-Camp Bagong Diwa but has also put their lives at risk. 

 

"Warden Bonto and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology cannot simply disregard the law at their pleasure," she added. 

 

The political prisoners also filed a complaint against Bonto before Taguig Regional Trial Court branche 266 and 271.