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Another 'Morong 43' detainee gives birth


Another “Morong 43" detainee gave birth to a baby girl Monday morning, a militant group said, making her the second among detained health workers to give birth in custody. Militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said 27-year-old Ma. Mercedes Castro, one of the 43 health workers arrested in Morong, Rizal last February, gave birth to a healthy baby girl at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) about 9:00 a.m. Monday. The 43 were arrested on suspicion of being members of the communist New People’s Army. The health workers, save for five who were transferred to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, are currently detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Health groups, however, have maintained that the 43 are community health workers and doctors who were conducting a health skills training in a private farmhouse when they were “illegally arrested and arbitrarily detained." Another member of the group, Judilyn Oliveros, gave birth on July 22 to a baby boy, whom she was able to breastfeed at the PGH, following a court order allowing her to do so. Castro is now recuperating at the PGH. Her lawyers have likewise filed a motion to allow her to remain at the hospital to breastfeed her infant. Will babies celebrate 1st birthday in prison? “Eight months of detention and two babies later, we are reminded of the continuing injustice faced by the 43 health workers," Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said in a statement. “Despite President Benigno Aquino III's articulation that the arrests and searches done in Morong were not in accordance with the law, there remains no official government action that will effect the release of the 43," he said. "We certainly do not want the babies to celebrate their first birthdays while their ‘Morong moms’ are still in detention," he said. Various local and international groups, along with several lawmakers, have called on the Aquino administration to release the 43 and drop the charges against them. On Sunday, London-based Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers wrote President Aquino to say that the 43 were illegally arrested and should thus be freed immediately. “The Haldane Society requests that you take action as soon as possible to address the issues raised in the report by Secretary de Lima and move with dispatch to release the 43 who have now been held for more than eight months," the lawyers said. Malacañang, however, appealed on Saturday to militants to wait for Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to finish her review of the Morong 43 case. Earlier, Aquino admitted the search warrant used to arrest the 43 may have been defective. - Larissa Mae Suarez and Jerrie M. Abella/DM/KBK, GMANews.TV

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