Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto
Political Prisoners and Detainees in the Philippines
The Current Problems
Political prisoners are victims of the government’s covert policy of political persecution against persons with different political beliefs.
They are those who were charged or convicted with political and/or common crimes, arrested, detained and/or imprisoned for acts to further their political belief, or are victims of political repression.
They are charged with fabricated criminal offenses or common crimes, conveniently hiding the political nature of their cases, thereby hiding the systematic political persecution committed against people like them.
The circumstances of their arrests reveal the pattern and rampant practice of illegal arrests and detention in the country: most of the time arresting authorities have no arrest warrants or have faulty and hastily secured warrants.
Their arrest and incarceration are meant to silence them, break their spirits and muffle their legitimate voices of opposition and dissent to government policies detrimental to the people’s democratic rights and interests.
Our Demands
- Free All Political Prisoners.
- Grant General, unconditional and omnibus amnesty to all.
- General, unconditional and omnibus amnesty.
- General means all political prisoners, alleged political offenders or others as defined in the preceding paragraph and covered by the effectivity of an amnesty proclamation.
- Unconditional means no precondition is set before they can be released. They will not have to go through the tedious application process and will not be required to plead guilty or make any admissions. They only need to be covered by the definition and effectivity of the Proclamation. The operative act to effect their immediate release is their inclusion in a pre-screened list and mere acceptance of the General, Unconditional and Omnibus Amnesty Proclamation.
- Omnibus means that all charges or offenses as defined in the Proclamation are covered by the amnesty.