DAVAO CITY – Human rights group Karapatan is appealing to President Rodrigo Duterte to immediately release a political prisoner from Samar Provincial Jail who suffers from kidney disease.
Renato Baleros, Sr. is set to be taken to National Kidney and Transplant Institute upon his arrival today, July 18 in Manila.
Baleros was rushed to the hospital night of July 2. Baleros was diagnosed of having acute renal failure, severe sepsis and acute inflammation of kidney tissues, calysys and renal pelvis and community acquired pneumonia which he got from Samar Provincial Jail.
“He needs to undergo further medical investigation, facilities for such are only accessible in Manila and Cebu,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General in a statement on Monday, July 18.
Palabay said they fear that bringing him back to prison “will eventually cost his life.”
“Baleros is detained for trumped up charges of murder and frustrated murder, robbery in band and multiple homicide, and arson filed against him. Almost all of his cases have already been dismissed, except for one murder charge,” said Palabay.
She said Baleros and his wife, Lonie Colinaio-Baleros, were heading the New People’s Army’s relief operations in Western Samar during the devastation of the typhoon Yolanda when they were arrested on December 2013.
“In the first place, Baleros should not have been arrested. His detention not only prevented him from doing the functions of a JASIG protected person in pursuance of his role in the peace process, but also caused the deterioration of his health,” Palabay said. (davaotoday.com)
