Letter to DOJ Secretary De Lima re-Morong 43

August 26, 2010

HONORABLE LEILA M. DE LIMA Secretary, Department of Justice Padre Faura Street Ermita, Manila, Philippines Fax No. (632)526-7643, Email: doj.delima@gmail.com

Dear Secretary de Lima,

We, the members of the Stop the Killings (in the Philippines) Network– Canada, welcome the news that a lower court ruled yesterday to allow political detainee, Judilyn Oliveros and her infant child, to stay at the Philippine General Hospital for three months.

This is a positive development, even though a hospital is not an ideal place for the nursing mother and the baby to stay. However, our utmost concern is still the return to prison of both mother and child after the 3-month period. We maintain that the harsh conditions in prison, where 23 female inmates are jam-packed in a small cell, are unsafe and unfit for both mother and child. The tensions attendant to prison life and the prison conditions will greatly impact on the mother’s capacity to care for her child as well as the healthy growth of the baby. Likewise, it will be inhuman and a violation of Judilyn and her baby’s rights should they be separated when Judilyn is returned to prison.

We are urging President Benigno Aquino III and you, Madame Secretary, to order the release of Judilyn not only on humanitarian grounds, but also on our belief that she and the 42 other health workers (Morong 43) are victims of arbitrary arrest and detention. Having courageously facilitated the family visits of the Morong 43 and conducted the hearings on the circumstances of their arrest, when you were the Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights, we are confident that you have a full understanding of their case and condition – that they were arrested under a defective warrant while undergoing community health training, subjected to physical and psychological torture, and were denied counsel.

We are gravely concerned about the condition of the 42 other detained health workers (Morong 43) who have gone on a protest fast since August 21 in order to draw attention and action from the President to the continuing violation of their human rights and the denial of the rule of law on their case.

We, therefore, call on President Aquino and you, Madame Secretary, to do the right thing and release Judilyn, her infant child and all the Morong 43 detainees.

We are confident that, as the son of the most prominent political detainee and victim of extrajudicial killing during the Marcos dictatorship, President Aquino understands very deeply the anguish and sense of injustice that the Morong 43 and their families have experienced for the past seven months.

We urge the President to follow after her mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, to release all political prisoners.

Sincerely,

Bern Jagunos (On behalf of The Members of the Stop the Killings Network – Canada)

The United Church of Canada Contact: Bern Jagunos 3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300 Toronto, Ontario M8X 2Y4 Email: bjagunos@united-church.ca	Canada-Philippines for Human Rights in the Philippines (CPSHR) Contact: Beth Dollaga Email:cps_hr@yahoo.ca
Centre for Philippine Concerns Contact: Malcolm Guy 6420 Victoria Avenue Suite #9 Montreal, Quebec H3W 2S7 Email: capcpc@web.net	KAIROS-Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives Contact: Connie Sorio 129 St. Clair Ave. West Toronto, Ontario M4V 1N5 Email: csorio@kairoscanada.org
Ottawa Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines Contact: Doug Booker Email: doug_nona@sympatico.ca	Development and Peace Contact: Genevieve Talbot 5633, rue Sherbrooke Est, Montréal, Quebec H1N 1A3 Email : gtalbot@devp.org
PINAY (Filipino Women's Organization in Quebec) Contact: Tess Agustin Address: 7595 rue Centrale,Lasalle, Quebec H8P 1K8 Email: pinaycan@yahoo.com	Philippine Solidarity Group - Toronto Contact: Rick Esguerra Email : ricke5253@yahoo.ca
Migrante- Canada Contact: Marco Luciano Tel: 647-205-5908 Email: migrantecanada@gmail.com	Dominique Caouette Fellow of the Canada Chair on Asian Research Department of Political Science, U. of Montreal. C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, Qc. H3C 3J7 Email: dominique.caouette@umontreal.ca
Victoria Group Contact: Glenys Verhulst 1118 Balmoral Road, Victoria, BC V8T 1B1 Email : glenysverhulst@gmail.com	MiningWatch Canada Contact: Catherine Coumans, Ph.D. 250 City Centre Ave., Ottawa, ON Email: catherine@miningwatch.ca
Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4600 Contact: Priscillia Lefebvre Email: priscilliajlefebvre@yahoo.ca	Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund Contact: Mahjabeen Chowdhury 80 Hayden Street, Toronto, ON M4Y 3G2 Email: mchowdhury@pwrdf.org
Beaconsfield United Church Contact: Rev. Shaun Fryday 202 Roadside Rd., Beaconsfield, QC Email: bu1@bellnet.ca
cc:	President Benigno C. Aquino III Peace Process Adviser, Sec.Teresita Quintos-Deles DND Sec. Voltaire T. Gazmin CHR Chair Loretta Ann Rosales Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon Ambassador Christopher Thornley Liberal Party Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae BQ Foreign Affairs Critic, Mme. Francine Lalonde NDP Foreign Affairs Critic, Mr. Paul Dewar