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[av_heading heading=’Left hits failure to release political prisoners’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
By Prince Golez, Manila Reporter
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MANILA – The failure to release all political prisoners is a “sign” of the Duterte administration’s “insincerity” in honoring its peace process commitments.
“We are disappointed with the way President Duterte is treating political prisoners as trump cards used to threaten revolutionary forces into surrendering,” Anakbayan National chairperson Vencer Crisostomo said.
There are a total of 434 political prisoners in the country, according to the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.
Crisostomo said it was agreed that political prisoners should be released through Duterte’s general amnesty proclamation.
Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III, the chief government negotiator to peace talks, also vowed to free political detainees in time for Christmas and before the New Year.
“None of this happened. Duterte took back this promise and declared that no political prisoners shall be freed without the signing of a bilateral ceasefire, saying they are his ‘final card’ in the NDFP-GRP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines – Government of the Republic of the Philippines) peace talks,” the youth group said.
The continued incarceration of political prisoners only confirms the President’s lack of respect for human rights and support for radical socio-economic reforms to answer the systematic roots of armed conflict, it also said.
Crisostomo lamented that hundreds of political prisoners, aged 18 to 35 years, belong to the youth sector.
In August last year, 19 consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines have been temporarily released on bail to join peace talks in Oslo, Norway.
Also, 21 political prisoners have been freed through the merits of their legal defense and remedies and independent of the peace talks./PN
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