Rights group Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) was shocked and dismayed after hearing the news that President Benigno Aquino III granted clemency to the deceased political prisoner Mariano Umbrero.“Apparently the President is oblivious to the fact that he gave conditional pardon to a dead man. Tatay Umbrero died on July 15, 2011 and PNoy signed his release papers on July 19. It seems that Umbrero’s release papers stopped at a bureaucratic red light and did not move till he was dead,” Emmanuel Amistad, Executive Director of TFDP said in disappointment.
Mariano Umbrero the cancer-stricken political prisoner died last July 15, 2011. TFDP received a copy of Umbrero’s release papers yesterday, July 28, 2011. TFDP and other human rights groups have been campaigning for his release on humanitarian grounds since early March after he was diagnosed with lung cancer in late February of this year.
According to TFDP’s records, Tatay Umbrero as they called him was one of the 320 political prisoners languishing in jails nationwide. Tatay Umbrero’s case was a showcase of how inhumane the bureaucracy was, specifically victimizing poor inmates like him. It is just and reasonable to review and amend the difficult provisions of the Board of Pardons and Parole rules and regulations on granting executive clemency.
“It is necessary that PNoy listens and looks into the plight of our political prisoners. He should learn the lesson and heed the call of the political prisoners who are now in a Hunger Strike since July 25. PNoy should act immediately again before another Umbrero happens,” Amistad continued.
