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UPDATE (Philippines): Sick detainee needs urgent adequate medication

March 28, 2008

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Update: AHRC-UAU-014-2008

28 March 2008

[RE: UP-086-2007: PHILIPPINES: Further delay in review of death sentences, torture complaints]
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PHILIPPINES: Sick detainee needs urgent adequate medication

ISSUES: Torture victims; detention; right to health; prison conditions
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Abadilla Five: Jailed for a decade without JUSTICE
http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/abadilla5/ 

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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern that the prison authorities have continuously failed to provide adequate medical treatment for one of the Abadilla Five detainees despite his deteriorating condition. The detainee had a kidney transplant in April 2003 and is supposed to take medication on a daily basis. Due to the lack of adequate treatment he is now experiencing complications. However, the authorities have failed to ensure he is adequately treated.

UPDATE INFORMATION:

As described in our previous appeal (UP-086-2007), the medical condition of Lenido Lumanog has been deteriorating. His family has had to produce large sums of money to support his medication because the treatment he is getting inside the New Bilibid Prisons, Muntinlupa, is insufficient. He had been experiencing complications since he had the kidney transplant.[See Photo]

Lenido is one of the five accused convicted for the murder of an influential police colonel, Rolando Abadilla in August 1999. The appellate review of their case though had dragged on for over eleven years. For further information about this case please read our campaign website mentioned above.

The severity of Lenido's condition and necessity to obtain adequate medication is stipulated in a medical abstract issued by his attending physician, Caesar Casanova Jr., M.D., of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), on 16 February 2007. In his medical abstract, Casanova reported that Lenido required eleven different prescriptions in various dosages for his ongoing treatment. Lenido's family has since been struggling to sustain his regular medication given the high cost of these medicines.

Also, Casanova has since made recommendations that Lenido should be kept away from crowded "area and congested places", dirty or polluted places since, following his transplant he is prone to infection. However, given the poor facilities and conditions inside the jail it is inevitable that he suffers complications. On occasions he has also been denied permission to leave the prison for his regular checkups for failing to obtain a gate pass.

In June 2007, his lawyer, Soliman Santos, filed a fourth and urgent motion requesting the Court of Appeals (CA) under the 15th Division to make an early decision in the appellate review of the Abadilla Five case. His argument, amongst others, was the medical complications Lenido is experiencing as basis for the CA to urgently conclude its review, which is already long overdue. However, no substantial progress has taken place since.

It is also learned that Justice Agustin Dizon, the presiding justice of the CA's 15th Division who is reviewing the case, is retiring on 27 June 2008. There are serious concerns that unless Justice Dizon concludes the review before he retires, it will once again be transferred to another justice. This pattern of transfer and unloading by other justices is responsible for the tremendous delay of the case.

On the other hand, Lenido and his co-accused complaint of torture pending before the Office of the Ombudsman for the Military and Other Law enforcement Agencies (MOLEO) against the policemen involved in arresting them have also shown no substantial progress. The last information obtained from their office was in 16 July 2007 wherein lawyer Santos was informed that the case "is still pending for preliminary investigations".

In our previous statement (AHRC-STM-037-2008), we mentioned that the complaint of torture itself suffers serious delays before the Department of Justice (DoJ) and subsequently by the Ombudsman. No charges have been filed against the perpetrators allegedly involved in torturing the victims despite a recommendation made by the office of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for filing a case in July 1996.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the concerned agencies listed below requesting for their appropriate intervention to ensure Lenido Lumanog obtain adequate medication he requires. Also urge the Court of Appeals (CA) to expedite the appellate review of the case of Lenido and his co-accused.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture calling for an intervention in this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:

Dear _________,

PHILIPPINES: Sick detainee needs urgent adequate medication

Name of the detainee: Lenido Lumanog
Place of detention: New Bilibid Prisons, Muntinlupa City
Status of the case: His is one of the five accused of the Abadilla Five. Five persons were convicted for murder in August 1999 but the mandatory appellate review of their conviction has since dragged on and is presently pending before Justice Agustin Dizon of the Court of Appeals' (CA), 15th Division.

I am writing to draw your attention to the plight of Lenido Lumanog, one of the detainees of the Abadilla Five, whose medical condition continues to deteriorate due to the insufficient and inadequate medication he is getting inside the prisons. Lenido is presently detained at the New Bilibid Prisons, Muntinlupa City.

I am deeply concerned by the failure of the concerned authorities to ensure that he obtains the state sponsored medication he requires. Lenido has been a kidney transplant patient since April 2003. His conditions, however, continuously deteriorates and he had suffers complications from his operations. Lenido had already acquired diabetes, hernia and difficulty of breathing.

The severity of his condition has been mentioned in his medical abstract in February 2007. According to his physician, Dr. Caesar Casanova of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), Lenido is required to take at least eleven different medicines for his lifetime treatment. This, however, are medications he could hardly obtain as the cost of these medicines are too expensive for his family to afford. His family has since been struggling to support his medication.

Also, his condition has been unnecessarily aggravated by his continued detention in an overly congested jail having poor medical facilities required for sick persons. I have learned the recommendations made by Dr. Casanova that Lenido is supposed to have been kept away from crowded, overly congested and dirty places as this may cause more complications to his health. However, as you are aware, this recommendation is itself impractical given the condition of prisons there.

I urge you for humanitarian reasons to ensure that Lenido obtains the medications he requires. He should also be placed in suitable facilities and an environment that would either reduce or prevent further complications to his health. It is unfortunate that this detainee has to unnecessarily suffer, as a result of the excessive and continued delays in the review of his and his other co-accused conviction, before the Court of Appeals (CA).

I also urge you to use your authority to request the CA, particularly the 15th Division under presiding justice Agustin Dizon, to expedite the review of their case. The concerned authorities should also seriously consider admitting Lenido to a hospital facility while waiting for the conclusion of the review of their case. It is extremely disappointing that the authorities have turned a blind eye to this.

To ensure the welfare and condition of detainees is a non-transferable responsibility of the government. Those taking custody of this detainee deprived of liberty, the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP), should have been able to ensure that he obtains State sponsored treatment. To ignore his condition undermines his right to life which is completely unacceptable as long he remains under the custody of the State.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President
Republic of the Philippines
Malacanang Palace
JP Laurel Street, San Miguel
Manila 1005
PHILIPPINES
Fax: +63 2 736 1010
Tel: +63 2 735 6201 / 564 1451 to 80
E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph 

2. Mrs. Purificacion Quisumbing
Commissioner
Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., Commonwealth Avenue
U.P. Complex, Diliman
Quezon City
PHILIPPINES
Fax: +63 2 929 0102
Tel: +63 2 928 5655 / 926 6188
E-mail: drpvq@yahoo.com 

3. Mrs. Esperanza I. Cabral
Secretary
Department of Social Welfare and Development
3/F DSWD Building, Batasang Pambansa Complex,
Constitution Hills
Quezon City
PHILIPPINES
Fax: +63 2 931 8191
Tel: +63 2 931 7916 / 931 8068
E-mail: eicabral@dswd.gov.ph 

4. Dr. Melinda Alipi
Chief
New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) Hospital
Muntinlupa City
PHILIPPINES
Fax: +63 2 772 2496
Tel: +63 2 850 0143

5. Mr. Raul Gonzalez
Secretary
Department of Justice (DoJ)
DOJ Bldg., Padre Faura
1004 Manila
PHILIPPINES
Fax: +63 2 521 1614
E-mail: agnesdeva@yahoo.com 

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
AHRC-UAU-014-2008
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.