The whole revolutionary forces, peasant masses and all friends and allies of the revolutionary movement in Cagayan Valley are enraged of the repressive state that imprisoned Cristina Miguel until her death. Miguel is better known by the masses as Comrade Asad or Comrade Sig.
Because of old age, she has been suffering from health conditions such as asthma, hypertension and osteoarthritis even before her incarceration due to trumped-up charges. Her health worsened in the four years of her imprisonment.
Earlier in 2022, she was infected with COVID-19 and later on developed pneumonia. Several times she lost consciousness due to difficulty of breathing. Lately she was diagnosed of lung cancer and was the cause of her death at the age of 67, but she was never granted access to approriate profesional health care while being detained at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Tuguegarao City. Amidst the calls and appeals of her legal counsel and groups of human rights advocates for her freedom and promptly hospitalization, it was denied by the court, eventhough most of the trumped-up charges filed against her were already dismissed.
Comrade Sig’s condition is not isolated to the conditions of numerous political detainees in which majority are elderly and are ailing from various illnesses. The denial of their right to accessible medical attention is an inhumane treatment and an outright violation of the rights of the detained and more so as a human being.
The National Democratic Front – Cagayan Valley vehemently condemns the denial of Comrade Sig’s rights that resulted to her languish in jail and demise and for the worsening of cases of human rights violations to the likes of Comrade Sig that are victims of fascism and cruelty of the state. The repressive state considers people like Comrade Sig who has dedicated her whole life in serving the oppressed and exploited masses as “enemy” and “threat to society”, and being wrathful of oppression and exploitation and fighting for a society that is truly free, just and has equality is a “crime”.
Justice for Cristina Miguel and all victims of human rights violations!
Free all political prisoners!
Hold the US-Marcos Jr regime accountable!
