At the time of her arrest, Reina Mae was pregnant. She gave birth while imprisoned to an underweight infant, baby River Emmanuelle, who would later be separated from her mother and denied of her mother’s breast milk which could have kept her healthy and prevented her untimely demise according to health experts.
As the year comes to a close, the regime seems to be meeting its quota. While we are still under a pandemic and while provinces are still reeling from the effects of the super typhoons, state forces are focusing its attention on arresting activists.
There's a higher plane where seeking for accountability can take us to, such as contemplating about socio-political systems which allow such adverse projects to perpetuate, about who really benefits from them. This saves us from the simplistic, ignorant, and cliché narrative of citizen-blaming.
A fellow Mindanaoan writer once said Davao Today (DT) is one of the few online news that he can rely on in terms of giving a bird’s eye view of the whole gamut of what is news in Davao particularly.
She spoke for us despite the risks of associating with people tagged as terrorists. It is time to show her our appreciation by helping her fight for her rights, which are also ours.