“It’s deeply troubling to think that someone like Imelda Marcos—who was found guilty of plundering public funds—remains free, supposedly due to her age and health. Meanwhile, elderly or ill detainees who are just ordinary citizens must go through extreme difficulty just to be granted consideration.”
MANILA – The Makabayan bloc refiled on Thursday, July 17, House Bill No. 2066 or the Antonio Molina bill, which seeks to allow the release on recognizance of elderly and/or sick persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
The bill is named after an elderly farmer and political prisoner who died in detention after suffering from cardiac arrest in November 2021. He was also diagnosed with stage 4 abdominal cancer. The Puerto Princesa Regional Trial Court Branch 15, however, denied Molina’s omnibus motion for release on recognizance on humanitarian ground. The bill was previously filed in 2021.
Read: Terminally ill political detainee dies waiting for ‘compassionate release’
Read: Palawan court denies ailing political prisoner’s plea for compassionate release
Present during the bill’s filing were representatives from human rights group Karapatan, along with former political detainee Prudencio Calubid Jr and his family.
“The stories of Antonio Molina and Prudencio Calubid Jr. are not far from each other,” Kabataan Partylist Rep. Renee Co said in a statement. “Tatay Antonio was an elderly farmer who passed away in prison after being charged with a fabricated case. Tatay Pruding, on the other hand, was illegally arrested simply because he shared the same name as a leader of the National Democratic Front (NDF).”
The 81-year old Calubid or Tatay Pruding was wrongfully arrested in December 2024 and was detained for months for being mistakenly identified as NDFP consultant Prudencio Calubid who has been missing since 2006.
Co also denounced the glaring inequality in “how the justice system treats the powerful compared to ordinary citizens.”
“It’s deeply troubling to think that someone like Imelda Marcos—who was found guilty of plundering public funds—remains free, supposedly due to her age and health. Meanwhile, elderly or ill detainees who are just ordinary citizens must go through extreme difficulty just to be granted consideration,” Co said. “The double standards in our justice system have gone too far. Elderly and ailing detainees—especially those who were illegally arrested or charged with fabricated cases—deserve humanitarian consideration. That’s why the passage of the Molina Bill is urgently needed.”
Karapatan meanwhile welcomed the refiling of the bill. In a statement, the group said that the very high jail congestion rates, overcrowded cells, low and corruption-prone budgets, largely inadequate medical facilities and services including reproductive health care, and lack of appropriate environment for sick and elderly prisoners have compounded conditions which led to deaths in detention.
Karapatan documented at least 24 political prisoners who have died while in detention for the past nine years, 11 of them during the Duterte administration and 13 in the first three years of the Marcos Jr administration. Among them was political prisoner and trade union organizer Ernesto Jude Rimando, 58, who died in July last year due to stage 4 liver cancer while in detention. Karapatan said a local court also denied his petition for the writ of habeas corpus.
In November 2016, peasant organizer Bernabe Ocasla, 66, suffered his third and fatal cardiac arrest while in detention. Peasant leader Joseph Canlas, 59, died in March 2011 due to COVID which he acquired in prison as jail authorities disregarded his medical conditions (hypertension and diabetes) when he was arrested and arbitrarily detained.
“If this bill is passed into law, we hope it will facilitate the release of prisoners on humanitarian grounds, especially ailing and elderly political prisoners who do not deserve to spend a minute longer behind bars,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said in a statement. She said that they hope that the bill, if passed, “will rectify the injustices suffered by poor and wrongfully accused persons vis a vis the ease by which the rich and the powerful such as Imelda Marcos and Juan Ponce Enrile are able to avail of legal remedies for their release while facing criminal charges.”
Read: Double standards in the Philippine’s justice system
Read: Groups press SC to prevent more deaths of political prisoners
“This measure complements the call to release all political prisoners on just grounds, as all are victims of illegal or arbitrary arrest and detention on trumped up charges. The Marcos regime’s campaign of political persecution of activists, community organizers, peace consultants and ordinary peasants and workers has viciously claimed lives and freedoms,” Palabay said.
The filing of the bill is also part of global efforts to mark Nelson Mandela International Day on July 18. Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist and former political prisoner who spent 27 years in harsh prison conditions before becoming the first Black president of South Africa.
The United Nations named a set of guidelines after him—the Nelson Mandela Rules—which set basic standards for how people deprived of liberty should be treated, including a ban on torture and other cruel or inhumane treatment. (DAA,RVO)
