Jail warden: Detainee can’t attend baby’s wake

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila City Jail female dormitory warden yesterday opposed the trial court’s grant of a three-day furlough for detainee Reina Mae Nasino to visit the wake and burial of her three-month-old baby.

Just hours after Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 47 Judge Paulino Gallegos granted in open court the furlough from Oct. 14 to 16, Jail Chief Inspector Maria Ignacia Monteron wrote to the court that the female dormitory only has 12 personnel serving as escort duty for the dormitory’s 665 detainees.

Monteron recommended that Nasino only be allowed a seven-hour furlough from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 14 to attend the wake, and to attend the burial at the Manila North Cemetery on Oct. 16.

She also cited the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology’s operations manual that prohibits an inmate from staying more than three hours at a wake and from joining the funeral procession.

Gallegos scheduled another hearing today.

In a statement, political prisoners’ support group Kapatid “decried” the letter by the city jail warden, citing longer furloughs granted by the Sandiganbayan to former presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to spend holidays with their families.

Nasino was among three activists arrested in a police raid on the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Tondo, Manila in November last year. She faces non-bailable charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

Vice President Leni Robredo urged the court to “choose compassion and empathy.” – Helen Flores, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Evelyn Macairan