Support needed, friends in jail (Phils.)

Greetings!

This is Terry from MIP (Manila Infoshop project) . Since last year we have been receiving copies of the 4Struggle Magazine and we really appreciate the contribution you sent for the library.

Early this year in February, we have our hitch-hiker/backpacker friends bound for Sagada Mountain province arrested, tortured and illegally detained by the military and cops in Buguias Town in Benguet - they were forced to admit that they were members of the New People's Army (the communist party of the phils. armed/guerilla group) due to a raid at the camp believed to be perpetrated by NPA members. Kolektivs here in the Phils. doesn't have any legal assistance group to help us out, the area/region is a communist infested area so the Cordillera Human Rights Group immediately responded to the situation. However, the CHRA (Cordillera Human Rights) was a member organization under KARAPATAN (the national human rights/political prisoner support group of the National Democratic Front-CPP) so it was difficult for us to intervene with the case - the kids got a legal counsel courtesy of FLAG (free Legal Assistance Group) - this legal group is not purely commie, however the CHRA has people working inside FLAG and they recommended their comrade lawyers immediately to handle the case...

We have already visited the kids in prison (some of them were minor and 1 of them was a 14 year old girl) , minors were recently released under the monitoring of Dept. of Social Welfare - still we face problems b'coz even CHRA and the lawyers no longer gives updates to the prisoners (tho it is their right at least to know the status of their case...) ... mostly punk friends/kolektivs visit them in jail (visiting days only on weekends) their families and relatives mostly lives in remote provinces...some of them were as far as southern Phils. in mindanao region.

We want to help our friends becoz if the authorities found out that they are from anarchist kolektivs/autonomous groups they would probably suffer the consequences of actions they never did. The situation in the prison system (specifically in provincial areas ...) is tough - the area is located in one of the coldest part of Phils. and they were never given enough food.... they sleep on the floor or in a very small wooden bench about 4 inch. wide - inside each cell contains 25-18 prisoners.

Also, we have difficulties with CHRA as they refuse to provide details unless ur a close relative or parents of the detainees - some kolektivs/individuals would visit the CHRA office only to be not informed - as for the lawyers, they always give excuses and jumping conclusions as such as "no sched of hearing yet" ...for the last 4 months...and another couple of months... - one of the parents disclosed to us that CHRA had them signed papers as approval to only allow the CHRA to intervene on the case...they would not consult other human right/prisoner support groups ..(the parents had no idea at all what their kids got into... so they neither understand the consequences of allowing CHRA to handle the case xcept for the fact they xpect that FLAG is a free legal Assistance with lawyers for their kids..) - we have tried here locally to seek other human rights groups but they are not allowed to intervene (due to leftist dogma clouding their minds...) so finally, the Asian Human Rights group based in HongKong helped us out but they cannot also intervene... we felt at lost as we already have our friends inside the jail for political crimes they didn't commit and yet still they were being hostaged by the commies for not pushing thru with the campaign - they have all the xcuses of death threats (we also have that share...) against their group due to massive killings/assasinations of activists specifically in northern Luzon region - not to mention that Phils. is the 2nd to Iraq in terms of danger for the media (mostly journalists/radio broadcasters...)

We already made petition campaign and about 2 weeks ago we submitted a copy to the dept. of justice in manila.

The updates and infos can be found @ http://a-manila.org (Sagada 11 Campaign), don't hesitate to contact us for inquries on this campaign -

If there's any help/assistance you can provide to us, we have an informal prisoner support network and individuals working on these matters - do contact us.