DAVAO CITY – Supporters and family of political prisoner Maria Miradel Torres held a protest on Monday at the Department of Justice to demand for her immediate release on humanitarian grounds. Torres is a breastfeeding mother to her 7-month old baby who is also with her in Taguig City Jail.
Karapatan Southern Tagalog, in a press release, said Torres is a mother of three who was “illegally arrested by combined elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) on 20 June 2014 in Quezon province.”
Karapatan said Torres was three months pregnant and was experiencing profuse bleeding at the time of her arrest.
The group demands Justice Secretary Leila De Lima to withdraw the cases filed against Torres “because they are mere trumped-up charges.” Torres was charged with frustrated murder and murder.
The human rights group also appealed to the DOJ and the BJMP to give Torres and her baby a proper facility that can be conducive to the mother and child after the motion filed by Torres for hospitalization was dismissed.
“What we are fighting for aside from their immediate release is the right of a breastfeeding political prisoner as stipulated in United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders”, said Reverend Gil Sediarin, deputy secretary general of Karapatan Southern Tagalog.
