The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a harsh light on the cruelty of the Philippine jail system, where thousands who have not yet been convicted of any crime spend years in detention. | JMAurelioINQ MatthewINQ
According to the Philippine National Police, there were 23,145 in Luzon alone who were arrested between March 17 and April 29 for violating curfews, much more than those who were fined over the same period for the same offense.There has been no sign of a significant slowdown in apprehensions—815 were arrested on April 29 compared to 1,163 on March 17.
David, who is detained at the Quezon City Jail , the third most populous in the country, shares a common area with hundreds. He was asked to pay P12,000 to gang bosses just to get a spot to sleep on.The youngest of Ina’s nine children, David, 21, a high school student, was arrested in November with a backpack allegedly filled with illegal drugs. Ina, who did not want to give her full name for fear of reprisal, said her son was framed.Ina said that the visits were nothing like in the movies.
“International law requires that imprisonment pending trial should be the exception, not the norm,” it said.The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers on April 6 petitioned the Supreme Court to release 22 political detainees on humanitarian grounds as they were vulnerable to COVID-19 due to their age and existing illnesses.
The Supreme Court has not ruled on the petition, which, if granted, could also apply to other detainees or prisoners in similar situations. “The problem with Congress, and we all know this, is that it isn’t moving because there’s no money here,” said Egon Cayosa, national president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines . “If this was construction, they would be competing over it because that’s where the votes and money are.”
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