Kin of 43 arrested health workers seek SC help

Families of the 43 arrested health workers in Rizal province on Tuesday sought protection from the Supreme Court against the government, particularly the military and the police. In a 17-page petition for writ of habeas corpus, the petitioners asked SC to compel the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to physically present the arrested health workers in court and order their immediate release. The families were joined by members of the non-government organization Community Medicine Development Foundation (COMMED) in their petition. “All the 43 men and women of the medical profession subject of this petition are presently detained and illegally and unconstitutionally deprived of their liberty by respondents, without any lawful cause and in utter disregard and violation of their constitutional rights," the petition read. The health workers, which include two doctors, a nurse and a midwife, were arrested last Saturday in Morong town on suspicion that they are supporters of communist rebels. They are presently detained at Camp Capinpin, a military headquarters in Tanay, Rizal. According to the petitioners, the health workers had been held incommunicado for almost three days and were denied their right to see their relatives and lawyers. It was only Monday afternoon when some of the relatives, accompanied by Commission on Human Rights (CHR) head Leila de Lima, were allowed inside the camp to talk to the victims. COMMED claimed those arrested were just attending health training in a facility within a farmhouse in Barangay Maybangcal in Morong. The farmhouse is owned by Dr. Melecia Velmonte, COMMED’s chairman of the board and a renowned infectious disease specialist in the medical profession. The group said the training was supposed to be held from February 1 to 7. The military, however, said the workers were in bomb-making workshop, with one of them allegedly being trained to assassinate now retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan, an aspiring senator. The petitioners claimed the arrest was illegal, noting that the search warrant shown by the arresting team was for a certain Mario Condes, who they said was not even a resident of the farmhouse. “The glaring truth is that the military and police really had no intention to search and apprehend a certain Mario Condes. Their intention is to harass, illegally search the farmhouse, plant pieces of evidence and illegally arrest the participants of the medical training using a patently unconstitutional search warrant in order for the search to have a semblance or appearance of legality," the petition stated. - Carmela Lapeña/KBK, GMANews.TV