National Commission for Culture and the Arts Pledges Support to the Campaign to Free Ericson Acosta

22 July 2011

MR. ERICSON ACOSTA

Dear Mr. Acosta:

Mabuhay!

As you mark your159th day in prison today, away from your family and friends, our thoughts and the empathy of the civil society will be with you. The injustice of your continuing detention mirrors the injustice that the more powerful has inflicted on our society and our people for so many years. All these times, you have never reneged on your promise nor wavered in your will to create works expressive of our present difficult but hopeful lives and meaningful to our people. We laud your choice to stand firm, at enormous personal cost, for the principles of liberty and justice. We likewise take distinct note of your instrumental role in the re-establishment of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) and your huge concern for the peasant sector and the oppressed since your campus days.

I want to assure you that as Executive Director, we will maintain a close interest in the fight of the more than 300 political prisoners in various detention facilities all over the Philippines.

We at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) join other non-government organizations like the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) in this call to end the culture of impunity. As the Nobel Peace Laureates’ Open Letter to Aung San Suu Kyi’s 60^th Birthday read, “Freedom must be demanded and defended, by those who have been denied it and by those who are already free.”

Very truly yours,

(Sgd.) MALOU JACOB

Executive Director

NCCA Pledge of Support