MANILA, Philippines - Political detainees at the Metro Manila District Jail (MMDJ) in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City have asked the court to order the jail warden to explain the alleged rights violations against the inmates.
The male inmates at the Special Intensive Care Area 1 (SICA-1), through their lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), filed a joint manifestation last January 27 before the Taguig City Regional Trial Court branch 271.
The joint manifestation requires Senior Superintendent Michelle Ng Bonto to explain to the court the purported rights violations against the political prisoners.
The case against Bonto stemmed from the threats of notorious Sputnik gang leader Jay Narvaez, blaming the political prisoners, who staged a hunger strike, for the suspension of the rights of the detainees to visits.
"By blaming the political prisoners for the suspension of the right of the detainees to visits and thereby provoking violent division among all the detainees of SICA-1, Warden Bonto is putting the life and security of the political prisoners in danger," the manifestation read.
Narvaez was transferred from MMDJ for having killed a member of a rival gang.
PILC said that last January 9, male political prisoners wrote the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology officer in charge Chief Superintendent Diony Mamaril and Bonto on their plan to stage a symbolic fasting from January 10 to January 19, in time for the Papal visit.
The letter also asked that the hunger strike be respected and should not be subjected to punishment or reprisal.
However, the political prisoners, in the course of the hunger strike faced reprisals, with Bonto disallowing Dr. Julie Caguiat, a regular visitor and attending physician of most of the political prisoners, and human rights workers and advocates to visit the detainees.
Bonto also stripped the male inmates' right to daily exercise and sunning privilege were cancelled and suspended for all detainees.
"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 manifestation added.