FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2013
International human
rights groups appealled yet again to the Department of Justice (DoJ) to immediately issue a favorable resolution to
the Petition for Review filed by detained poet-activist Ericson Acosta.
Justice Secretary
Leila de Lima, who met with Acosta’s family last week, promised Acosta and his
supporters that the DoJ resolution will be out “by Friday (last week) or early
next week.” However, The DoJ is yet to release its decision as of posting time.
In separate
statements addressed to the DoJ, human rights support groups from the United
States, Canada and the United Kingdom, reiterated their appeal for Acosta’s
immediate and unconditional release.
“Acosta’s
complainants have failed to file any comment on this petition. Without such
opposition, the review petition should have been resolved within 60 days,” said
Rev. Canon Barry Naylor, honorary president of the CHRP-UK (Campaign for Human
Rights in the Philippines-United Kingdom). The petition for review was filed by Acosta’s
lawyers from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) in September 2011.
“We as SF CHRP (San
Francisco Committee for Human Rights Rights in the Philippines) demand that all
of the trumped-up and fabricated charges against him be dropped and that he is
set free in order to pursue his artistic passions,” said Rupert Estanislao,
chair of the SF CHRP.
“(Acosta’s) continued
detention is a colossal injustice to Acosta and to the Filipino people whom he
has chosen to serve through his courageous and creative involvement in the
people’s struggle for their economic, political and cultural rights,” said Orval K. Chapman, founding member of the
Canada-Philippines-Solidarity for Human Rights.
Acosta, 40, a
cultural worker arrested by the military in San Jorge, Samar while conducting
human rights research, is currently confined
at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) in Quezon City after
securing a court order for a medical furlough. Upon arrest, Acosta was interrogated and
tortured inside a military camp for three days before a trumped-up charge of
illegal possession of explosive was filed against him to justify his arrest and
detention. Before his confinement at the
NKTI, Acosta was detained for 23 months at the Calbayog sub-provincial jail in
Samar.
His supporters say that
his current medical problems are the direct result of torture and dismal prison
conditions.
The Free Ericson
Acosta Campaign (FEAC) demanded that the DOJ resolve the case immediately while
Acosta is under medical furlough. “We do not want him to return to a hostile
environment given his medical condition,” the group said.
“The only thing
(Acosta) is guilty of is dedication and
service to the oppressed masses of the Philippines,” they said.
Father also in hospital
Acosta’s family continues
to raise funds for his medical bills even as Acosta’s elderly father, Isaias,
79, who publicly appealed for his son to receive medical treatment since July
of last year, is now also scheduled to undergo a spinal operation within the
week.
“The distress of
Ericson’s imprisonment has also taken its toll on my husband’s health. He is in
severe pain now due to a spinal ailment and needs to immediately undergo
operation. We are very old, our only wish is to see our son walk free again,”
said Liwaway, 80, Acosta’s mother. ###
