(Hong Kong, March 27, 2008) The Asian Human Rights Commission on Wednesday has sought the intervention of a Catholic bishop in the case of an ailing detainee, one of the Abadilla Five, who fears for his life due to the inability of the authorities to provide medical assistance.
Basil Fernando, AHRC executive director, had asked Bishop Pedro Arigo, head of the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (ECPPC), to help Lenido Lumanog obtain the medication and treatment he requires.
“Your prompt intervention would be of extreme importance to this prisoner in need,” Fernando said in his letter on March 26 to Bishop Arigo.
Lenido, a kidney transplant patient since April 2003, is presently detained at the New Bilibid Prisons, Muntinlupa City. His health has since deteriorated due to insufficient medication and treatment. His family is unable to pay the cost of his medication.
The AHRC has express deep concern by the inadequate attention Lenido is receiving inside the prison given the severity of his condition.
“He (Lenido) has acquired illness of diabetes, hernia and often experiences difficulty in breathing,” Fernando added. There have been occasions when Lenido was prevented from leaving the prison for his regular checkups.
The ECPPC’s help was sought after it was learned that their office has made previous interventions for sick prisoners and also for their advocacy on prison conditions. The ECPPC is under the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Lenido and the four other co-accused Augusto Santos, Senior Police Officer 2 (SPO2) Cesar Fortuna, Rameses de Jesus and Joel de Jesus, were convicted by a local court in August 1999 for the murder of a police colonel. The appellate review of their case has dragged on for over eleven years.
Lenido’s imprisonment as a result of the excessive delay of their case is aggravating his condition as he awaits the conclusion of his case.
On March 18, lawyer Soliman Santos who represents the Abadilla Five, wrote to the UN Human Rights Committee urging them to make an early decision on the complaint they had filed against the Philippine government on the excessive delay and lack of domestic remedies of the Abadilla Five in March 2006. The complaint was filed under the Optional Protocol complaint procedure of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The government is a State party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and has also signed the Optional Protocol which allows individual complaints against the State for violation of rights.
Santos said that “an early decision by the Committee on the issues of delay and the appellate review might in turn help spur an early decision by the Philippine Court of Appeals on the issue of [the victims] guilt or innocence”.
In January this year, the AHRC launched campaign requesting Justice Agustin Dizon of the Court of Appeals to conclude the appellate review before he retires 91 days from today. Under the Constitution, a review by appellate courts should be completed within one year once the case is submitted for decision. The case was submitted for decision on 29 November 2006 but to date no conclusion has been made.
For further information on this case, please visit our campaign website: http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/abadilla5/
