Gerardo de la Peña (Brother’s photo)
MANILA, Philippines — Now frail and sickly, Gerardo dela Peña just wants the rest of his years to be spent with his family in Camarines Norte province.
As “the country’s oldest political prisoner,” according to the rights group brotherDela Peña, 84, has been serving his sentence at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) for what he and other groups have described as false charges against him.
Since 2019, they have been clamoring for the release of “Tatay Gerry”, as the prisoners call him, due to humanitarian considerations of his advanced age and deteriorating health.
“Just bring him home alive. It’s the best gift he’ll get for Father’s Day and the rest of his life. We’re not waiting until it’s too late for him,” Kapatid’s spokesman said on Saturday, Fides Lim, in the Inquirer.
“We are asking the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court and the Philippine government to grant him what he has longed for. Please take heart,” he added.
“Unjustly convicted”
Born on April 23, 1939, Dela Peña, a peasant from Vinzons, Camarines Norte, is the oldest of 824 political prisoners in the country, according to Kapatid.
Lim said “Tatay Gerry” has been in prison for almost 10 years.
The Court of First Instance of Daet, Camarines Norte, convicted Dela Peña in February 2014 of murder, for the fatal shooting of her nephew Melchor on April 21, 2001.
Dela Peña was only arrested in March 2013 but was convicted less than a year later. He is currently serving a life sentence, or 20 to 40 years in prison.
The prosecution maintained that, based on witness testimony, Dela Peña and his brother Armenio were members of the New People’s Army (NPA) who suspected Melchor of being an army intelligence asset.
The NPA had claimed responsibility for the killing. But Dela Peña denied he was a communist rebel and said he was just a “scapegoat” who was “unjustly convicted.”
He headed the Association of Ex-Detainees Against Arrest and Detention (Selda) and was also a member of the human rights group Karapatan.
The Supreme Court, however, ultimately denied his appeal and upheld his conviction in November 2019.
‘they love him’
Last year, Dela Peña was transferred from the NBP’s maximum security compound to its minimum security compound, occupied by persons deprived of liberty (PDL) aged 70 and over who are about to serve their sentences.
“But transfer to [the] minimum [security compound] it is not a guarantee [his] quick release The longest political prisoner has languished there [at the minimum security security compound] since three years ago due to bureaucratic delays,” Lim said.
He added that “with his background as a human rights worker and ex [village councilor], he easily won the trust of his PDL colleagues. It is very natural for him to help people. That’s why his fellow PDLs in the NBP maximum security compound love him.”
“They love their Tatay Gerry so much that they are more than willing to take care of him despite their meager resources within the NBP. They want him moved back to building 11A in the maximum security compound so they can continue to have him better” , Lim said.
According to her, the “inhuman conditions” at NBP have aggravated Dela Peña’s hypertension and brought him new ailments.
When Lim visited Dela Peña in 2019, he was told that he had been coughing up blood and that he had also been due for cataract surgery for some time.
Lim said the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) has not provided any checks on Dela Peña.
When Kapatid last visited him in January, Dela Peña said: “I am old and sick. In the time I have left, I would like to be able to be with my family.”
Her six grandchildren who live in Metro Manila have been visiting Dela Peña regularly, Lim said.
But his wife Pilar and his two children don’t even have the money to travel and visit him.
Pilar herself is already old and sick like her husband, and traveling would be too stressful for her, Lim said.
‘No political prisoner’ released
Every year since 2019, Kapatid has submitted Dela Peña’s name to the Department of Justice for consideration for release on humanitarian grounds.
BuCor has released more than 7,000 PDLs since July last year as it tries to decongest its facilities. Its director general Gregorio Catapang Jr. recently said he expected President Marcos to approve the release of more than 3,000 sick and elderly inmates this year.
“But no political prisoner has been included in any of the PDL’s government releases of elderly people. Not one,” Lim said.
He said he did not want Dela Peña to suffer the same fate as another political prisoner at NBP, Jesús Alegre, 75, who died of cardiac arrest on June 13, 2021.
Alegre had been in and out of the NBP Hospital for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes mellitus.
His wake in Manila five days later reunited Alegre’s wife Morita and their son Selman.
Appeal to the Supreme Court
Lim said BuCor officials met with Kapatid last Tuesday (June 13) and assured the group that they would investigate Dela Peña’s case.
Kapatid and other groups said they would also approach the Supreme Court once again and seek a writ of kalayaan, a legal remedy for PDLs seeking relief amid overcrowding and other living conditions in the country’s prisons.
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