Satur funds ‘political prison’

Former political detainee now sectoral representative Satur Ocampo (Bayan Muna party list) shelled out P200,000 from his congressional "pork barrel" fund for the construction of a special detention cell for political prisoners.

In a statement, Ocampo said the one-storey, eight-room detention cell at the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City will be constructed through his priority development assistance fund and will serve as a "temporary shelter" for political prisoners.

He explained that the project’s implementation was coordinated with Bureau of Corrections director Ricardo Macala and NBP Msgr. Helley Barrido of the Philippine Independent Church (PIC).

Ocampo described the project as an "assistance to human rights victims," adding that the release of the funds was further coordinated with Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

The lawmaker inaugurated the detention cell last Tuesday, which Bayan Muna declared as "Political Prisoners’ Day."

Ocampo, former chair of the National Democratic Front (NDF), spent nine years behind bars as a political prisoner during the Marcos dictatorship regime, and another three years under the Aquino administration. The NDF is the underground political umbrella of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Upon his release from prison in 1989, he assumed a lead role in the mainstream Maoist movement as a peace negotiator.

According to Ocampo, there are still some 314 political prisoners languishing in various detention centers across the country.

He said that the special detention cell constructed out of his congressional funds can temporarily hold 20 political prisoners.

Ocampo said the previous detention cell where political prisoners were kept was destroyed after a fire hit NBP’s Building No. 11.

"Without enough funds to rehabilitate the destroyed building, NBP administrators had to move the political prisoners (to other cells holding) together with common criminals," he said.

"Later, they were transferred to a small room inside the PIC chapel upon the political prisoners’ request."

Ocampo further explained that the NBP, which was built in 1935, was designed to hold only 5,000 inmates.

However, the national penitentiary currently hosts more than 8,000 convicts, he said.